The Marauder Tales
by AnotherGirlWithAStory
Summary: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." [[Drabbles about the Marauders]]
1. Chocolate & Pranks

**Title** : Chocolate & Pranks

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew.

 **Word Count** : 600

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James Potter was whistling when he made his bed. That was enough to catch the attention of his friends but what made them truly react was the way he clapped his hands when he was done and looked at his clean area of the room with as much pride as he would a well-conducted prank.

"What's up with the smile?" Sirius asked from across the room on his bed where he casually laid with his arms underneath his head. "You look like that time when Evans complimented you on not being a complete arse for once."

Remus laughed and looked up from his book to see that his opponent had yet to make a move. Peter sat on the other side of the bed watching the chessboard as if it would give him the solution if he focused hard enough.

"Say whatever you like Padfoot for today nothing can ruin my mood," James replied as he sat down at the end of his bed just enough so that he wasn't standing but not enough to mess it up. "I am going home and it's Easter."

Sirius shrugged. "It's Easter, so what?"

"He says, _so what_ …" James eyes widened. "That is not a question one should use in the same sentence or in contact with the word that is Easter. It's an amazing holiday with a bunch of amazing food and more chocolate than you can possibly imagine. It's almost as amazing as Halloween."

Sirius laughed. "Well, that kind of celebration sounds amazing Prongs but I feel like I'm obliged to remind you that not everyone celebrates like that. My family invites all of the pureblood families and the food is barely touched because people either don't want to gain weight or they're afraid of being poisoned by someone at the table; which isn't completely unlikely. And the chocolate figurines are there for decorative purposes."

James laughed when he heard Sirius say that they were afraid of getting poisoned. Although it was no laughing matter it was hard to not react in any other way. The fact that there probably was an ounce of truth in the sentence didn't make much difference.

"What about you, Moony? Wormtail?"

Remus shrugged. "My parents aren't really much for celebrations. It'll be quiet and I'll probably just study a lot."

"What about chocolate?"

Remus rolled his eyes but gave his raven-haired friend a smile. "Prongs, it's me you're talking to. I eat chocolate pretty much all the time anyway. I don't have to wait for a holiday to do that."

James laughed and pulled his hand through his hair as he leaned forward. Peter had a huge smile now that he had managed to make a move but the frown returned when Remus didn't have to think twice before making a countermove and it was yet again his turn. "What about you Wormtail?"

The moment the question left his mouth tension took over the room and Peter shrugged as his cheeks turned into a violent shade of red. Sirius rolled his eyes and mouthed smart to James who for a moment wanted to hit himself in the head. "Sorry mate, I forgot."

"That's okay James." Peter replied and gave him a smile.

A moment of silence. "Why don't you guys come back home with me? I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind." James said. "Come on boys, it'll be a holiday of pranks and chocolate. You can't say no to that?"

"No." Sirius replied. "I suppose we can't."

James smile looked as if it was about to burst. "Good, then start packing because we leave after lunch."

 **The end**


	2. An Unfortunate Transformation

**Title** : An Unfortunate Transformation

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew

 **AN** : Written for the _Character Admiration Tournament_ held by Lenore483 at The Golden Snitch Forum. Team Light: Your character is stuck as a farm animal.

 **Word Count** : 731

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James Potter was a goat. He wasn't meant to be a goat but the transformation had gone slightly wrong. It was meant to be a prank and one could claim that it was a prank to turn your friend into a goat but it wasn't the prank they had attempted to pull. When they read the instructions that James had written down on the piece of paper they didn't think that it would work. Turns out they underestimated their friend because apparently, he did know how to turn people into goats.

Sirius, Remus and Peter for the first time found themselves at loss for words. The place that had previously been occupied by their raven-haired friend were now occupied by a brown-eyed goat. Sirius glanced at Remus and saw an expression of complete dread on his face. Peter looked almost green and in the back of his mind Sirius thought about asking if he needed a bucket to throw up in. Then the goat cried out. No, James cried out. The goat became stiff and when he turned around to look at them, his eyes were completely wide-open.

"I know this sounds bad James but I promise that it's not as bad as you think," Sirius said carefully approaching his best friend while gesturing for Remus to hand him a mirror. "You seem to have turned into a goat. A very handsome goat if I may say so myself but never the less a goat."

He held the mirror in front of James and immediately the goat screamed. It was a shrill sound that had Remus and Peter hold both hands over their ears while Sirius scrunched his face together and tried to ignore the spit that landed on his face. Eventually, the goat stopped screaming and Sirius slowly opened his eyes.

"What are we going to do?" Peter asked as he began pacing the room holding his head with his hands. "We're only thirteen for Merlin's sake, we can't undo this. We've just changed our best mate into a damn goat and now he may have to stay like this forever."

At the sound of the word forever James eyes widened but as he opened his mouth Sirius put his hand over it. "Don't listen to him mate. He's just freaking out. I'm sure you'll turn back to normal very soon. We probably won't even have to talk to McGonagall. Thank Merlin for that."

Remus looked at James from every angle with a questioning expression on his face. He gently touched the fur of his back which had James jump away from him. "This is in fact very interesting."

The goat or James rolled his eyes.

"Can you imagine what McGonagall would say?" Sirius said looking at James as he barked out a lout laughter before turning serious and making a bad attempt at copying the voice of their teacher. "Well Mr. Potter this is quite an unfortunate transformation, don't you agree?"

Peter was still pacing the floor while rambling to himself about everything that was so horrible about the situation. By the way he spat out words it wouldn't shock anyone if he fainted any time soon. And if not the three other boys – well, the two other boys and the goat - were sure that he could make someone else faint; this was the longest rant ever and most people in the school had probably never heard him string even two sentences together.

"I wonder what would happen if…" Remus sneaked up behind James and let out a loud scream.

James became stiff and seconds later fell to the floor with his legs stiffly stretched upwards. Sirius and Remus looked at each other. Even Peter had gone quiet at the sound of the goat falling. Seconds of silence and then they laughed. They roared with laughter, clutched their stomachs as happy tears ran down their faces. Neither of the boys noticing when the goat transformed back to a not happy looking James Potter. With an evil grin on his face he raised his wand and pointed at the three boys and their laughing changed into cries from that of three goats. Sirius, a brown goat with long fur that covered his eyes, Remus a blond goat with scars on his body and Peter a bit chubby goat looked at their attacker.

James Potter smirked. "What an unfortunate transformation boys."

 **The end**


	3. Johnnie B Goode

**Title** : Johnnie B. Goode

 **Character** : James Potter & Sirius Black

 **Prompt** : Johnnie B. Good by Chuck Berry.

 **Word Count:** 634

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The first time that James Potter heard the song _Johnnie B. Goode_ he was seven years old. His parents had taken him to London for the day and they were strolling down the street when James suddenly stopped. He frowned and looked for the source of the sound. It was by no means the first time he heard music, his father was a big fan of listening to music while he worked, but James had never heard that particular song.

"What are you looking for James?"

"Do you hear that song?"

Both his parents looked up as if that would help them better hear the song he was referring to. A smile appeared on his mother's face. "Do you like it?"

James nodded. "Well, then…" his mother concluded as she looked towards the other side of the street. "I'll go buy it for you."

From the moment that they came back to the house that song was played on repeat. Day and night the words of Johnnie B. Goode were heard throughout the house until even James' parents knew the lyrics like the back of their hand in spite of not having listened very closely. They needed only hear the iconic guitar in the beginning to understand which song it was.

James loved it. So much that he stubbornly proclaimed that he could only be friends with people who liked that song. His parents asked him what he would do if he wanted to be friends with someone who didn't like the song. James looked at his parents with a frown on his face and scoffed as he childishly proclaimed that would never happen. He pushed his glasses further up his nose, they had a habit of sliding, and then pointed at his chest.

"I know a good person when I see one."

Fleamont and Euphemia laughed at his comment. They knew that he would eventually grow out of it.

When James was eleven years old he bordered the train to Hogwarts. His body was filled to the brink with nervous energy, his glasses kept falling down as he almost jumped up and down on his seat. It felt like he had waited for this moment his entire life. James had already hugged his parents' goodbye. His mother had kissed him on the cheek and he had promised to behave; both James and his parents knew that was not a promise that he could keep. James stomped his feet to the floor and looked around. He needed to find friends, and by that he meant _real_ friends – James glanced out the hallways but saw no one – and he needed to show them what a funny guy he was. It was obvious what he needed to do.

Johnnie B. Goode began playing in his compartment and James looked towards the entrance into his compartment as he waited for someone to appear. The longer he came into the song without anyone showing up the more disheartened he became. When the song started over James almost frowned and he turned to look out the window instead. He almost didn't notice when he door opened. If the young boy that wandered in hadn't violently thrown his bag into the side of the wall, then James would have continued looking out the window.

He had brown hair that gracefully hung around his face, a big smile and sparkling mischievous eyes. He let out a sigh and wiped his forehead with his hand. "Can I sit here?"

"Absolutely." James smile grew and he watched as the boy sat on the opposite side from him. "I'm James Potter."

"Sirius Black." A moment of silence followed. The song ended and then started over again. Sirius smiled. "I like that song."

James didn't attempt to stop his own smile from growing. "I'm glad."

 **The end**


	4. Seriously Ill

**Title** : Seriously Ill

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Lily Evans Potter.

 **Word Count** : 356

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Cough. Sneeze. Another cough.

Lily Evans looked up from her book and faced the Marauders who sat on the other side of the table. The source of the noises was Sirius Black whose cheeks were at least one shade redder than normal and from certain angles it became clear that there was a coat of _something_ over his eyes.

"Are you okay Sirius? You don't look too good."

James looked up from his toast. "He insists that he is fine."

Remus nodded. "He's experiencing a mild inconvenient itch in his throat hence the coughing and the sneezing is because of some unknown allergy."

"We've been trying to get him to go back to bed since before he left it this morning but he's too stubborn for his own good." Peter finished all while Sirius sat in the middle looking both aggravated and happy at the same time. "We're trying to make him talk less by answering his questions for him."

Lily laughed and looked at James assuming that he had done most the talking. "That can't have gone down well with McGonagall."

The raven-haired boy shook his head. "Two weeks' worth of detention."

"I told you that you didn't have to do that mate." Sirius voice was rough and he was quickly hushed at by the three other boys.

Remus pushed a cup of tea towards him. "Pads, no speaking. Drink that!"

"Thank you Moony."

The three boys shushed again and this time James pushed a glass or orange juice to stand next to the cup of tea. "You need plenty of vitamins."

"I don't like orange juice." Sirius commented and once again the three boys shushed him. "I'm not going to die if I talk; stop shushing me."

"If you would stop talking then we wouldn't have to shush you." James said with a smile on his face and pushed the orange juice closer to him. "Drink the orange juice Pads. That's an order!"

Sirius muttered under his breath but drank the juice never the less. "This is ridiculous. I'm not sick."

"Of course, not Pads." James said with a wink. "You're just _seriously_ ill."

 **The end**


	5. Washing the Dog

**Title** : Washing the Dog

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

 **AN** : This one appeared because I gave my dog a bath today. Sometimes it's just that simple.

 **Word Count** : 662

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James, if someone asked, couldn't really tell where the idea came from. It just hit him, straight out of the blue one day during a hot summer day, how odd it was that they hadn't ever washed Sirius in his dog form. As if struck by something James sat up straight. Pearls of sweat ran down his forehead and the muscles moved underneath his tanned chest as he turned around to look at Sirius whose hair was pushed back into a bun as he laid soaking up the sun. Remus sat in the shadow of a great tree and dark glasses covering most of his face.

" _Oh Pads…"_

Sirius held his hand in front of his eyes to shield them from the sun. "What kind of stupid idea do you have in mind now Prongs?"

"You love my ideas." James commented with a smirk. "And I was just thinking that you're looking like you need to cool down a little bit."

Sirius muscles flexed when he pushed himself up in a sitting position. "What did you have in mind?"

Remus had removed his glasses from over his eyes and were looking at them curiously.

"I was thinking that we should wash the dog." James said with a shrug.

Sirius let out a barking laughter. "That's a crazy idea Potter." He stood up and brushed any dirt from his shorts. "Let's do it."

Remus watched as Sirius transformed into the familiar black dog. "So, James what makes you think that this is a good idea?"

James' smiled at him as he pulled out the hose. "Nothing at all makes me think it's a good idea Moony. But it sounds like a lot of fun."

As it turned out washing a dog was hard even when said dog was an animagus. They had barely soaked in water Sirius black fur before he shook his entire body making fur and water fly uncontrollable around him. Both Remus and James laughed and to no avail jumped away from the wet dog whose eyes glimmered with amusement as he did it again just a few seconds later.

"You are never going to get clean if you keep this up Pads." James commented when he'd done it a third time and after that he stopped.

"Don't you look handsome." Remus laughed when they were finished. Sirius black fur was shiny and he shook his entire body every few minutes; a safe distance away from Remus and James who stood ready to lay down and relax again. "I almost prefer you in your dog form Sirius."

Sirius scoffed and turned his back on his friends to go lay down on the ground. James shook his head. "I think you hurt his feelings Moony."

Remus shrugged as he laid down next to James on the ground. "I'll apologize later."

James let out a sigh of content as the sun returned from behind the clouds and warmed up his naked chest. He ran his hand through the raven hair as he heard an unmistakable groaning that could come from no other than Sirius. James glanced at the fury shape in front of him.

Sirius stood on all four legs. His bum was directed straight up in the air, the tail wagging furiously, as he pushed his head and nose further into the ground. Luckily the black fur remained looking as clean as it had been before and water was still dripping from him.

"Are you okay Padfoot?" James called out and got given a bark in return. James gave him thumbs up.

"I still don't understand why you thought it was a good idea to give him a bath in his dog form." Remus murmured sleepily from the spot beside James where he laid on his stomach; his head resting against his arms.

James shrugged. "I never said it was a good idea. I said it would be funny to try and I was right. Plus, Sirius really needed a bath."

 **The end**


	6. A Pretty Penny

**Title** : A Pretty Penny

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

 **Prompts** : Write about a group of students simply hanging out as friends.

 **AN** : Written for the _Jurassic Fever [Challenge]_ held by whitetiger91 at The Golden Snitch Forum.

This contains a character called _Penny_ mentioned in my multi-chapter fic called _Old Scars and Future Hearts_. She has only been mentioned once but she'll appear more frequently in the future. Penny, there are moments I have imagined that I cannot get into _OSAFH_ so I decided to add some here; I hope you like this!

 **Word Count** : 698

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Sirius leaned his head onto his arms as they rested against the table in front of him. The thirteen-year-olds dark hair fell gracefully on his shoulders and he stifled a yawn by putting his hand in front of his mouth. James and Remus spoke loudly on the other side of the table while Peter sat next to him; every now and again he would throw a grape into his mouth.

The tension in his muscles had slowly decreased during the way to school; and now it was completely gone and replaced with a sense of content. Content and exhaustion. The kind of exhaustion that came from being repeatedly told in sneering, venomous voices how worthless he was and what a shame he was for The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. A laugh escaped his parted lips and Sirius couldn't help but smile to himself. When he was surrounded by his friends it became easier to let himself be amused by their fanatic ideas and their idiotic pride.

"This is boring."

James rolled his eyes. "Here we go again…"

"You said the same thing last year." Remus commented with a hint of amusement in his voice. "And the year before that, and the year before that… Merlin Sirius, it's like you never learn. It doesn't matter if you think it's boring we'll go through the same thing every year."

Sirius winked at him. "You say that as if that means that I can't complain about it Moony."

Remus rolled his eyes but before he managed to voice the, probably, sarcastic comment in his head James raised both hands and efficiently managed to get their attention. "Why don't you try and look at the sorting this year mate. Who knows maybe something interesting will happen?"

"Maybe something interesting will happen." Sirius said in a teasing voice as rolled his eyes. "Yeah right something interesting is going to happen. You know Prongs, sometimes I wonder about you and the…"

"Hello, I'm Penny." A bell-like voice interrupted him mid-sentence and caused Sirius to look to the side. What he saw was a girl looking like she was in their age with black hair that flowed past her shoulders, her eyes glimmered in a way that made it hard for him to look away and then there was the genuinely happy smile.

"Sirius Black." The young boy vaguely gestured his friends. "This is James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew."

"Hello." Penny spoke and waved. Sirius saw out of the corner of his eye how James saluted her with two fingers.

One moment of silence. Sirius didn't speak as he watched Penny with a distant smile on his face. He was vaguely aware of the fact that James was covering his mouth with his hand in a bad attempt to hide the fact that he was laughing. Two moments of silence.

"So, I haven't seen you around here before." Remus commented.

Penny's smile wavered but it was barely noticeable. "I'm new. I'm very new. I went to a private school until very recently but I wasn't able to continue so my teacher wrote a letter to Dumbledore about me going here instead."

"And you were sorted in Gryffindor?" Penny shrugged and for some reason Sirius couldn't help but smile. "Based on how you just started talking to us I'm going to say that the hat made the right call."

Penny's smile grew once more. "Well, since it worked out so well with you guys I'm going to try and make some more friends. But maybe I'll talk to you later?"

"Sure." Sirius said nodding. "I'll save you a seat."

"Sounds good." Penny responded with a shy smile before walking a few meters down the hallway and sitting down next to Emmeline Vance and Marlene McKinnon; both reacted positively to her sitting down from what Sirius could tell.

James laughed. "What was that?"

"That was a Penny." Remus said and nudged James shoulder.

A sigh escaped Sirius parted lips. "That was not just a penny. That was pretty Penny."

James snorted. "A pretty Penny?"

"Yeah well," Sirius smirked. "If you can have your Lily flower then I can have my pretty Penny."

 **The end**


	7. With a Little Help from My Friends

**Title** : With a Little Help from My Friends

 **Characters** : Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

 **Prompts** : Team Light- Your character is stuck in a dream. Write about a character who has been given an unfair reputation (Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, James Potter...).

 **AN** : Written for the _Character Admiration Tournament_ held by Lenore483 the _Jurassic Fever [Challenge]_ held by whitetiger91 at The Golden Snitch Forum.

 **Word Count** : 990

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Taunting words spoken by the venomous voices followed him down the long corridor. Sirius Black knew that in real life the corridor wasn't that long but at the moment it made no difference. His brown curls gracefully moved in rhythm with his steps and occasionally Sirius would turn around to look at the people who followed him. His grey eye would widen in fear and for the few seconds he allowed himself to look at his parents and his brother it felt as if his heart was going to violently beat its way out him.

"Traitor." His mother called him with her wheezing voice. "Scum. Traitor. You are no child of mine."

His father joined in and soon Regulus did too. It wasn't until then that Sirius felt the familiar stab in his heart. He had been told what a disgrace he was before. But he had never heard the words from his brother. He had never seen those grey eyes look at him with such hatred or seen those thin lips throw those harsh insults at him.

"No brother of mine." He spoke as he tilted his head to the side.

There was nothing Sirius could do to get away from them. No matter how hard he pushed his tiny body they were always going to catch up with him. There was no possibility for him to get away from them. Then they stopped. Sirius did too. He breathed heavily, it felt as if his lungs were going to break, and watched as the people in front of him changed. It wasn't his brother and parents looking at him anymore. Sirius shoulders slumped forward and his entire face turned into a mask of dread.

"No, no," he whispered mostly to himself with a voice more pleading and filled with desperation than it had ever been before. "Please, not them. Please, don't turn into them. Anyone but them. Help me."

Whoever it was that Sirius begged for help had decided to not give it to him. The three people in front of him had now all taken the shapes that he already knew like the back of his hand. James Potter with his hazel eyes looked at him not with fondness but with hatred. Remus Lupin with scars across looked like he was physically restraining himself to not hurt Sirius. Then there was Peter with a snarl on his face.

"Did you really think that we were friends?" the voice of James said. Sirius knew that it wasn't him but the knowledge of that didn't matter. He still felt his chin quiver as the first tears ran down his cheeks. He stood completely paralysed as his friends approached him much like carnivores approached their victim. "Silly little boy. You mean nothing to us. Your parents were right, you a disgrace to everyone."

The voice of James continued to taunt him. Every word he spoke, every insult, latched themselves onto Sirius heart and he felt himself break. His legs could no longer carry his twelve-year-old body and he fell to the floor as his friends circled around him.

"You are a disgrace."

"You mean nothing to us."

"You mean nothing to anyone."

"You are worthless."

Sirius head slumped forward and his entire body shook with sobs. Brokenly he whispered I'm sorry over and over again until he screamed the words so loudly that he thought his vocal chords would break and leave him a mute for the rest of his life.

Then he opened his eyes. He was still screaming and he felt pearls of sweat running down his forehead. It took a few minutes to figure out where he was but eventually he did. Sirius was at Hogwarts. He was in his bed, surrounded by nervous looking eleven-year-old boys whose terror couldn't be hidden. Peter with his brown hair, chocolate brown eyes and chubby cheeks was the first to speak.

"Are you okay?" his voice rarely carried much emotion in them but this time he sounded worried.

Sirius nodded and that had James scoffing from where the raven-haired boy sat in front of him. "That is bullshit. You are not okay. What happened?"

Sirius attempted to smile but he could feel his lips quivering and his voice came out in a whispering tone. "What would Mrs. Potter say if she heard you use that kind of language?"

James shrugged as he ignored the attempt to lessen the tension. "It doesn't matter right now. What matters right now is you." His voice softened. "What happened Sirius, you can tell us."

Sirius shook his head, suddenly not trusting his voice to carry. He was afraid to look at James and see a look of disappointment flicker across his face. But still when James sighed deeply Sirius forced himself to look.

"Oh well," he moved from the end of the bed and laid down next to Sirius.

"What are you doing?" the young boy managed to ask.

James looked at him with an expression that told him what a stupid question that was. "If you don't want to tell us that's okay but I'm still going to stay with you. I don't need to know what made you so scared to protect you against it."

Sirius felt his eyes fill with tears again and when he laid down he put his head on James shoulder and subconsciously made his body as small as he could.

"We don't either." Peter spoke with a smile.

Remus nodded. "We're friends. Now scoot over."

It took a lot of moving around to fit the four boys in a bed that was made for one. But eventually they all laid closely together. James held Sirius close and didn't comment on the desperate grip Sirius had around his raven-haired friend. Most of the time, after a nightmare like that, Sirius would be unable to go back to sleep. But this time, somehow, he managed and Sirius knew exactly why.

 **The end**


	8. When James and Lily Bought a Dog

**Title** : When James and Lily Bought a Dog

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black and Lily Evans Potter.

 **Prompt** : Animagus Training – Identifying Marks, Task #1: Write about a person being identified only with the help of a unique trait mark. (object) Crystal ball, (colour) blue and (word) tear. Minimum words 500, maximum 3 000.

 **AN** : I am aware that Lily and James went into hiding in 1979 after Lily found out that she was pregnant with Harry. I have never read any statement saying that they never left their house and thus I am assuming that they did leave on occasion at least in the beginning if nothing else.

 **Word Count** : 811

* * *

"I can't believe I lost Sirius." Lily Evans spoke to herself in a distressed tone of voice as she walked down the street with James Potter next to her. Her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore a blue and white dress that accentuated her growing baby bump.

James pulled a hand through his already messy hair as he looked down on her with an amused smile. "I can't believe that you lost Sirius either."

He wiped away the last tear that fell down from his cheeks, not from crying out of sadness, from laughing.

Lily glared at him and though there was a certain fierceness in that look James laughed causing Lily to groan. "This is not a joking matter. I lost him. I lost your best friend in his animagus form and there is no way that I will be able to find him and he's never going to let me forget about this. He will remind me of the time when I lost him for the rest of my life…"

James managed to contain his laughter that time. "First of all, he's my brother and don't worry about not finding him. You have me now. I know him better than I know myself, practically."

"So, genius, where did he go?" Lily asked as she spun around and looked at the shops they saw.

The street was neither empty not overcrowded. The sun came out every now and again before hiding behind a group of clouds. There were a few people sitting inside a bakery. Occasionally they would look out and at the sky and Lily thought that she could see them say something about rain. There was a grocery store further down the street, some clothing shops, a library and a pub. James then laughed.

"He's in there." He gently turned Lily around and made her face a smaller building with pets written in big bold letters. Lily looked at him quizzingly. "Sirius has always had this idea that he can talk to dogs."

With that he took Lily's hand and they crossed the street to enter the building. The first thing they saw were a group of puppies surrounded by a big black dog whose tale wagged quickly when the puppies jumped around him. James' smile grew. It was hard to see who was happiest. Sirius or the puppies. Because there was no doubt in his mind that the grown dog was Sirius. He could see it in the stormy grey eyes that could belong to no other and the barely visible scar that travelled down his spine.

"Excuse me sir." James' voice caused the dogs ear to perk up and he looked at James. "It seems as if you have found our dog. We've looked for him everywhere, thank you so much for keeping him here."

The owner who leaned almost his entire body on the desk looked at James with a bored expression. A crystal ball stood just out of his reach with a layer of dust having settled around it which made it hard to see anything in its reflection. The owner was an almost entirely bald man with small eyes, a big nose, thin lips and he looked like he was trying very hard to stay awake.

"Your dog?" The man scoffed. "How do I know it's your dog? Can you prove it?"

Lily and James looked at each other. Lily shrugged. "Well, technically we can't prove that he's ours…" she began but was interrupted.

"If you can't prove it then he's not yours." The man said and gave Lily and James a smile that showed them two lines of teeth that looked more yellow than white.

Lily sighed.

"What if we buy him from you?" James asked and right away the owner's eyes glimmered. "Would that work?"

"Yes," he said while pretending to study his nails. His tone of voice much more cheerful than it had been moments before. "I guess that could work."

James swore, when he handed the money over to the owner, that Sirius barking really was laughter. But James was the one laughing when Sirius got a collar around his neck and was put on a lease; to make sure that he didn't run away again. Lily didn't try to hide her smile as they walked out hand in hand. Sirius went between whining and barking. Almost like he couldn't make up his mind if this was funny or just embarrassing. James didn't know what to think either.

"You will never stop reminding me about this Padfoot." James stated and Sirius glanced back at him, his tail wagging quicker now than before. Lily laughed at the look on her husband face and stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. "I can hear it already. Hey, remember when Lily and James bought a dog."

 **The end**


	9. I Wish I Didn't Want Her

**Title** : I Wish I Didn't Want Her

 **Characters** : Sirius Black and James Potter.

 **AN** : Having a crush on the same person for ages is not always fun… just saying!

 **Word Count** : 360

* * *

Sirius Black walked with his head directed to the floor until he reached the final step and heard James voice. It sounded darker, emotionless and came from the other end of the room. Sirius looked towards the source of the sound and saw James leaning his back against the cold wall while his feet hung on the outside of the tower. He was nowhere near close enough to the edge to fall. His raven hair was messier than normal as if he had viciously been running his fingers through it and his glasses rested further down against his nose.

"How did you know that I was here?"

Sirius didn't even bother trying not to laugh. "Really? Are you really asking _me_ , how I knew that you were here?"

James laughed. "Yes, I guess that was a stupid question."

"It was a _really_ stupid question." Sirius nodded in agreement. He sat down on the empty spot next to James and leaned back onto the palm of his hands. "So, how did your date go?"

James shrugged and let out a disinterested groan. "It went fine I guess." He sighed deeply. "Lily saw us."

"Ah. What did she do?"

"Nothing," James aggravatedly ran his fingers through his messy hair. "She just looked at us."

"I'm sorry Prongs."

"Don't be." James shrugged. "I didn't go on a date with Emmeline because I wanted Lily to react. I didn't do it because I wanted to make her jealous or anything. She's never been interested in going on a date with me before so why would she suddenly be interested because I'm dating someone else?"

"I don't know." Sirius replied and tapped his head then his chest. "But the mind works in strange ways. One's heart and mind doesn't always play nice together."

James laughed. "Yeah, you're right about that Pads. Because my heart can't seem to let go of this crush I have on her even if it's only causing me pain and my mind is doing a bad job at convincing it to stop even if…"

"Even if?"

"Even if…" James looked at him with tear-filled eyes. "I wish I didn't want her."

 **The end**


	10. She Does

**Title** : She Does

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Penny Singh.

 **AN** : My mind feels completely fried right now so here's some mindless drabbles for you.

 **Word Count** : 372

* * *

"She was flirting with you mate. Just now, like two minutes ago, that was flirting." James said in a dramatic tone of voice as he leaned across the table to get closer to his best friend. In the process, he almost rested his arm into the butter but thanks to the quick reflexes of Remus Lupin he didn't.

Sirius laughed as he thought about the moment James was referring to.

Penny had walked by with Dorcas and Marlene whom was telling her all about their summer when Sirius felt someone touch his hair. It had reached the length when there was a risk of getting in his food when he ate and because of that reason it was pushed back in a bun. Penny had a fascination with people's hair and Sirius knew before he turned around that he would look straight into her glimmering eyes.

"Nice hairdo. It looks good on you." She had said with a wink before re-joining Dorcas and Marlene.

"See I told you that she wanted you." James excited voice woke Sirius from his thoughts.

"A lot of girls want me."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yes, but this is different."

"Okay, I'll bite." Sirius turned sideways to look directly at Remus. "Do tell me Moony. How is this different?"

Remus gave him a triumphant smile that could almost compete with how James had looked when they beat Slytherin last. "Because you want her too."

"Of course, I want her." Sirius replied as if the statement was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Does she know that?"

Sirius turned sideways and looked towards the exit of the great hall where Penny were standing next to Dorcas and Marlene as they listened to Emmeline. For a brief moment, their eyes connected and Sirius saw how her face light up that way it only could when she saw him. Sirius laughed. She had the same effect on him, it was only fair that he affected her too.

"Pads?" James voice broke his line of thought and Sirius glanced at him with slightly raised eyebrows. "Does she know that you want her?"

"Yes," Sirius nodded with a big smile on his face and took a bite out of his apple. "She does."

 **The end**


	11. A Most Beautiful Day

**Title** : A Most Beautiful Day

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Penny Singh.

 **Prompts** : Write about someone being reckless Alt. Write about someone having a perfect day. (Dialogue) "Some of us have a job." / "Some of us have fun." / "And some of us are having a really bad hair day." / (dialogue) "But I'm cute. Look how cute I am." / (word) Adventure, (word) declare, (word) dork and (character) Sirius Black.

 **AN** : Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments). Assignment #1, Potions: Felix Felicis.

 **Word Count** : 1, 281

* * *

Most people considered having to work a negative thing. Well, maybe not most but the people that Sirius was forced to surrounded himself with did as a child and young teenager. He had never heard someone speak of responsibilities as a good thing; they were only seen as the disadvantages of born as a pureblood or otherwise rich person. As a child, he was told that he was lucky to have been born into a rich family because he would never have managed to live like a normal person. Sirius always did believe that they were wrong but up until getting his flat and realising that those costed money he never had a reason to fully prove them wrong.

Sirius Black had a job. The firstborn son of Walburga and Orion Black, one of the two heirs left to ensure the survival of one of the most notorious and powerful pureblood families of all times had a job. It was shocking for everyone, even the brown-haired pureblood rebel himself. He'd pinched himself more times than he wanted to admit to make sure that this wasn't just some crazy dream. The small bruise that was starting to form on his forearm told him that it wasn't. He, Sirius Orion Black, truly was spending the summer by selling ice-cream. A sigh escaped his parted plump lips and a smile graced his face. It was to pay rent for the apartment. The apartment he shared with Penny. His hand became moist from sweat as he dried his neck. It was worth it.

"I can't believe my eyes," Sirius was woken up from his thoughts when the sound of James Potter's voice reached his ears.

The raven-haired boy did not come alone. He was accompanied by two other boys, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, and all three smiled like that cat from Alice in Wonderland. Sirius could never remember its name. His beautiful girlfriend rolled her eyes at them.

"That's what the last customer said too," Sirius replied with a smirk as they approached the counter. "But I promised that I hadn't performed any surgery to look this good and no, I have yet to be contacted by an agent to become a model but I'm anticipating a change in luck very soon."

"Oh, and did she believe you?" Remus asked with an amused tone in his voice.

Sirius eyes sparkled as he nodded.

"And was that after or before you gave her ice-cream?" Penny couldn't help but ask with a sarcasm so thick that one cold almost cut it with a knife. Sirius tilted his head to the side and smiled at her. "You are beautiful babe, I'll give you that. But everyone's attractive when they offer you ice-cream."

"So, if I offered a girl ice-cream before asking for a date she'll most likely say yes?" James thoughtfully pouted his lips when he looked at Penny waiting for an answer. A smile flashed across her face and she nodded briefly before standing next to him with Peter and Remus on his left side. "You give excellent advice. I knew there was a reason I kept you around."

Sirius coughed. In his mind, he thought about the absurdity of them holding onto Penny. He was fairly certain that it was the other way around. She had decided to keep them around in spite of others telling her that it was a bad idea. But he decided not to say that out loud.

"What are you doing here?"

Peter took a step towards the glass-counter. His fingers leaned against the glass and Sirius almost thought that he would start drooling when he looked at the various kinds of ice-creams that was placed in front of him.

"We're on an adventure. We were bored so we decided to come here and support you. At least I think that was the idea, James held some grand speech and said something along the lines of I declare that we should all support each other every time one of us reaches a new milestone," Peter said with a shrug. "Hey, is there any chance of me getting some free ice-cream?"

"No, dork," Sirius said albeit with an amused tone in his voice. Remus looked pale where he stood eyeing the different kinds of ice-cream with a little less excitement than Peter. "You said that you were coming to support me. How is asking for free ice-cream supporting me?"

Penny took a step forward. "How about me?"

"No."

"But I'm cute. Look how cute I am." Penny tilted her head to the side so that her black hair gracefully fell with to the side and ended up exactly where it was supposed to. Her long eyelashes gently graced her skin every time she blinked and Sirius couldn't help but smile. Her eyes glimmered and even if Peter missed the fact that she was joking, Sirius didn't.

"That you are," he agreed. "But no, you're not getting free ice-cream and neither are you Wormtail so don't try to slither in to get what you want."

Peter made a noncommittal sound. James shook his head before turning his full attention to Sirius. "How's the first day going?"

"It's going great, well it was going great until you guys appeared," Sirius said while keeping a lookout for his boss who told him that he would be back later to check on Sirius and see how things were coming along. "Some of us have a job. And I would like to not get fired from it."

"You may have a job but we have fun," James replied with a wink. A grunt from Peter made him look over at the young boy who's longing only grew stronger. "Some of us have fun."

Remus had moved to the nearest mirror and pathetically moved some strands of hair. "And some of us are having a really bad hair day."

"I'm glad you said so yourself Moony because I did think it but I didn't want to tell you," Penny said and was given a not so nice gesture from the boy with the sandy blond hair. "I like you too."

"Yeah, yeah can you guys just leave already?" Sirius said with a laugh as the conversation bounced from one topic to the next. He gestured for his girlfriend of nearly two years to come closer and when she was close enough he leaned down and kissed her. "Consider me supported for now. You have done what you came for. Now, I really have to keep working."

"You're sure?" Peter asked while James wished him good luck. "I can support you a little bit more. I can even try the ice-cream to make sure that it hasn't gone bad or anything."

"Wormtail," Remus said in a sing-song voice from the door and Peter went to join his friends. Penny winked at him before walking out the door. Remus had an arm around Peter's shoulder and James was the last person to leave.

"I'm proud of you mate." He said and offered Sirius one last smile before the door was closed.

Sirius couldn't help but smile. Those were his best friends and his girlfriend. He couldn't help but think that their way of supporting him was random and strange at best. But that didn't matter. Because they had been there. They had come to see him if only for a few minutes as he proved his family wrong. Again.

A sigh escaped his parted lips and Sirius found that when the next customer walked through those doors he didn't have to fake the smile on his face when he greeted them. This was turning into a most beautiful day.

 **The end**


	12. Faith or Coincidence

**Title** : Faith or Coincidence

 **Characters** : Euphemia Potter, Fleamont Potter, James Potter, Sirius Black, Penny Singh and Lily Evans.

 **Pairing** : James x Lily & Sirius x Penny.

 **Prompts** : Muggle AU!

 **AN** : This story is written for the [Challenge] World Gobstones Championship held by whitetiger91 at the Golden Snitch.

I have no idea who wrote the quote that I have in the beginning and at the end of the story but it definitely wasn't me.

 **Word Count** : 1, 288

* * *

" _Well look who I ran into," crowed Coincidence._

Fleamont and Euphemia Potter were old when they had their first child. They had almost given up hope when their biggest wish was granted in the shape of James Fleamont Potter. A raven-haired boy with hazel eyes and an increasingly mischievous smile. He was an energetic child and for many years the couple believed that this was faith's way of saying that they would only ever have one child. Maybe that was a good thing.

* * *

By coincidence they were proven wrong when James brought home a young boy by the name of Sirius Orion Black eleven years later.

Euphemia looked out the window of their mansion as she always did at that time of the day. She expected to see her little boy walking down the road which led to their house. Most kids that he went to school with had private drivers but James walked back and forth every day. Not that it was long and not because they couldn't afford a driver. Euphemia just believed that it was good for him to be a normal child in any way that he could. But when Euphemia looked out the window she saw the forms of two boys. After a few minutes, she heard the door open and then close.

"Hey mum, I brought my best friend," Euphemia bit her lower lip to contain her laughter. He had only known the boy for a week. She turned around from the stove and washed her hands on the apron. Eventually her son walked into the kitchen with the other boy behind him. "This is Sirius Black."

Brown, long hair and grey eyes. He stood with his arms in front of him and his head directed to the floor. Only when Euphemia kneeled on the floor did he look her in the eyes.

"It's nice to meet you," Euphemia said and smiled at him. "Are you boys hungry? I think there's still some of your father's pie left. Do you like cherry, Sirius?"

"It's my favourite. Thanks Mrs. Potter." Sirius smiled at her and from that moment Euphemia was wrapped around his tiny finger.

Coincidence may have lead this boy to their doorstop but she knew that it had been meant to be. Sirius was not just another one of James' friends. After a while Euphemia cared about this child as much as she did James and seeing his smile every day reminded her of the feeling that filled her body the moment when James opened his eyes and looked at her for the first time. Seeing the bruises that covered his tiny body filled her with such sorrow and rage that she sometimes struggled to contain it. That's what she told the judge when she was asked why she believed that Sirius should move to live with them instead of staying with his parents. And at the age of thirteen Sirius Orion Black was officially their son in every way other than blood.

Euphemia and Fleamont was there for every major moment of their sons lives. They watched them grow from stumbling boys to young men with dreams. They were there to comfort them when they failed, to remind them that life would get better whenever they struggled and they were there to celebrate their success. Many moments were planned and came right on time. But the best moments were those that no one could see coming. Coincidence or fate, who knew?

* * *

"I met a girl," James said at dinner after his first day at university. His hazel eyes glimmered behind his glasses and his muscles moved underneath his tanned skin when he reached for the salad on the other side of the table. "Red hair, green eyes and such a sharp tongue. I think I'm in love already."

Sirius didn't finish chewing before he let out a barking laughter. "That's great mate. But do you know what her name is? Did you even talk to her or did you just admire her from a far?"

"Don't be stupid," he said and glanced at Sirius with a smile. "Of course, I asked her for her name."

"Well, what is it?"

"It's…" James let out a deep sigh and his cheeks turned into a darker shade of red. "Lily Evans."

James was convinced that it was faith. He was convinced that she was the love of his life and they were meant to be together. The next time he saw Lily he asked her out on a date and that was the beginning of their relationship. Over and over again James would say that it was faith. They were meant to find each other. They were meant to be together. Sirius didn't believe him.

"It was coincidence," he would argue every time the discussion came up.

* * *

Sirius and James had a lot in common but their biggest difference laid in their nature. James didn't particularly seek out the rest of the world. He wasn't drawn to exploring other parts when there were so much he could explore right where he was. Sirius on the other hand was restless. He wanted to travel and he was found staring out at the horizon during the year it took for him to raise enough money. But once he had Sirius got up on his bike and drove away.

Euphemia, Fleamont, James and Lily stood watching him as he disappeared. James didn't have to tell anyone that his heart was breaking. It was visible and almost audible too as he stood clinging to Lily watching his brother leave him behind. Euphemia was sure that she had never seen her son experience that kind of pain before. And when Sirius returned she was sure that she had never seen James experience the kind of happiness. She could almost hear his heart mend itself as Sirius stopped the bike and got off.

"Did you miss me?"

No one got any sleep that night. They stayed up with candles as their only source of light, blankets to keep them warm and beverages which started out strong but grew increasingly weaker as the night progressed. Sirius was the centre of attention and he gestured wildly as he talked about the adventures he had been on, the places he had seen and the people he had met. Euphemia was mostly quiet as she listened to him and she marvelled at how much he had changed. Gone was the restlessness that would sometimes torture him and it was replaced with an enthusiasm that she was sure would push him into new adventures closer to home.

She didn't know that his new adventure would begin the very next day when he wandered around London with James and accidentally walked into a young woman.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry. Are you okay?" he asked as he helped the woman up.

She still had a smile on her face and there were dark blue highlights in her black hair. Her dark eyes glistened and she gracefully dusted of the little dirt that had gotten stuck on her colourful dress.

"I'm fine," she said and eyed him. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to walk into you…"

"Sirius, Sirius Black, and I was the one to walk into you…" he said and for every word his smile grew.

"Penny Singh."

Sirius let out a deep sigh. "Nice to meet you Penny."

* * *

Euphemia didn't know if it was fate or coincidence. Maybe it was a little bit of both? But when she sat amongst the crowd of people who was there to see her sons get married to the loves of their lives she truly didn't care.

" _Please," flirted Faith, "this was meant to be."_

 **The end**


	13. Knowing Me, Knowing You

**Title** : Knowing Me, Knowing You

 **Pairing** : Lily x James

 **Characters** : James Potter and Lily Evans Potter.

 **AN** : This story was very, very inspired by the song Knowing Me, Knowing you by Abba. I feel like such a Swedish stereotype for typing that but it's the truth and it's a damn good song. This story can be read as a part of Prongs. I would say that this took place at the end of Prongs before Voldemort attacked the Potters. This is very, very short. It may seem odd that I'm posting this one here but I didn't want to post it on Prongs and I didn't know where else to put it.

 **Word Count** : 640

* * *

Everything was different. How odd that it only took a few seconds for their world to turn upside down.

They sat silently on either side of the living-room. Lily's red hair was pushed back in a ponytail and her green eyes were bloodshot. James knew that he looked as tired as she did and for a very good reason. Normally his body would tremble from energy that he had been unable to release. But this time he sat completely still as the heavy emotions made it impossible to move his body.

"I don't love you anymore." Lily said after a few moments of silence. It was the second time she had told him that. It didn't hurt quite as much that time. He knew what it meant. He knew that there were other words following that sentence that she had yet to find courage to say. "I think we should break up."

He didn't want to say the words that was just ont he tip of his tongue. Maybe he wouldn't have if he wasn't so tired.

"I think you're right," James nodded as he leaned his head onto his crossed arms. He looked at the floor just in front of Lily and hoped that she would believe that he was looking at her. "Do you think we would have stuck together if you hadn't gotten pregnant?"

He half expected her to look at him as if he had insulted her. Or worse, as if James had insulted Harry. But to his surprise Lily shook her head. "Knowing me and knowing you, I would have to say no. Eventually we would have driven each other crazy and if we didn't have Harry we wouldn't have had any reason to fight for us the way we have the last few months."

 _Fight for us the way we did_. James didn't really know if he would call what they had been doing fighting. Well, at least not fighting for their relationship. But he didn't say that out loud. That would definitely make them fight again.

James nodded. "Breaking up would have been the best thing to do."

Those words were followed by silence. They were done arguing. They were done screaming at each other. They were done trying to act as if they were still in a relationship when they both knew that it was over. There was nothing else they could do. After years of being in a relationship with each other, after years of saving each other from real and imaginary dangers their relationship had come to an end.

"I did love you," James eventually said and took a deep, shaky breath. "I loved you so much."

There was another moment of silence when all you could hear was their raggedy breathing. James waited for her to say something, anything.

"I'm sorry," Lily whispered brokenheartedly. James looked up at her. He saw the red hair, the green eyes and the smile that still enchanted him. They had been hiding for so long, they had been fighting for almost equally long and still she was one of the most beautiful people he knew. It didn't matter that she was surrounded by an aura of exhaustion. "This isn't easy for me to say and I'm really sorry."

"Breaking up is never easy," He moved over to her side of the room until his arms were around her shoulders. She cried on his shoulder and he could feel her body shaking against his. "And I'm sorry too."

"Things have really changed now," Lily whispered and James nodded.

"Yeah," he whispered. Everything was different. James forced himself to smile. The fact that things were different didn't mean that it would get worse. "But knowing me and knowing you, we'll be able to turn this around in no time. It'll be okay, Lily. I promise."

 **The end**


	14. Padfoot & Penny

**Title** : Padfoot & Penny

 **Pairing** : Sirius x Penny

 **Characters** : Sirius Black, Penny Singh, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

 **Warning** : Slight Lily bashing… maybe?

 **AN** : I have tried writing this story three times. THREE TIMES. And this version is nothing like the first two. I just wanted to throw that little piece of information out there.

This story is dedicated to Penny (padfootastic). I consider myself very lucky to have started talking to you of all the people I could have started writing with. You're a constant source of inspiration, motivation and you're truly a brilliant person. I love discussing things with you even when we don't agree with each other because you provide this amazing perspective that I have never considered before. You are truly amazing and I will never be able to thank you enough for being my friend. But I'm going to try. So, this is for you.

 **Word Count** : 2, 034

* * *

The flat was filled with people. Penny was surprised that the floor hadn't started cracking at some point since she was sure that the material wasn't meant to hold the kind of weight that it did at the moment. There was loud music and people were talking about whatever crossed their drunken minds. She wore a colourful dress as she sat next to Sirius, _her husband_ , and watched as the few people they had invited enjoyed themselves.

It was odd. They were in the middle of a war. The last thing you expected to find amongst a crowd so battered and bruised by the constant fighting was happiness. Yet there it was. So blatantly obvious in their faces, the way they gestured when they spoke to each other. Everyone seemed to have forgotten their situations at that very moment and thoroughly immersed themselves in the positive emotions that filled the room.

The sound of someone hitting their glass reached her ear and Penny glanced to her left side. Sirius still sat next to her but the person next to him, James Potter, stood and looked at the people in front of him while holding his glass in front of him.

"I was asked to make a speech and before I do," he turned to Penny and Sirius and made a big deal out of putting his finger on his nose. "I'm not drunk so if I do reveal anything embarrassing about the two of you that's not something you can blame. Not that you need to worry about that. Because I'm not here to tell these beautiful people about the times you screwed up… I am here to tell you about the moments that lead to this. This is the story of Padfoot and Penny."

* * *

 _1972_

"Look, there she is." Sirius Black said and pointed at the girl who walked a few meters in front of them. Her black hair was pushed back in a ponytail and she looked down on a piece of paper.

"Which she is we talking about?" Remus asked from behind him while James stood on his toes.

Once he found who Sirius was looking for he stood normally again and smiled. "Penny. Gryffindor. New student who arrived last night and had dinner with us. Geez Moony I knew you could be distracted with food in front of you but not that distracted."

Remus gently shoved James who only laughed.

"I should go talk to her right?" Sirius asked with his eyebrows slightly raised. "I mean she looks kind of confused and we have the same class as her. I should be a good guy and go talk to her."

Remus nodded. "Definitely."

Peter gave him the thumbs up and the kind of smile that showed Sirius exactly what he had been eating for breakfast. Then James stepped forward and gently patted his shoulder. "You should definitely go talk to her. Go get to know her mate, make some friends. We're getting tired of your face anyway."

"Hilarious Prongs," Sirius replied and rolled his eyes but never the less started running and eventually caught up with her.

James laughed and nudged Remus. "Merlin, he's cute."

"You both are," Peter replied as he stepped up next to the raven-haired boys side.

"You're a true charmer Wormtail." James answered and messed up Peter's hair before they walked into the classroom. Sirius and Penny were still standing in the hallway.

* * *

 _1973_

Sirius looked out the window. The snow was slowly falling down outside. The ground had turned white hours ago and Sirius had watched it all happen. His birthday was always a weird day. One the one hand he wanted to celebrate it but on the other hand there was nothing he wanted to do more than hide away until it was all over. James, Remus and Peter would never let him do that. They wanted to celebrate him and told him that over and over again. And if Sirius could forget about his stupid parents then he would have been able to look forward to his birthday as much as they did.

He sighed deeply and leaned his head against his legs. He really wished it was that simple.

"Hey Sirius," a careful voice was heard through the darkness and when he looked to the side he saw Penny. "I didn't think you'd be awake. Did you have a good birthday?"

Sirius shrugged. It was the best he could do. "Birthdays are complicated. But this one was a lot better than some others I've had."

"Can I sit?" Penny asked and sat down in front of Sirius so that their feet touched. "Why would birthdays be complicated?"

"Families have a habit of making a lot of things complicated," Sirius replied. Until he met James the normal response he got was offensive ones. But when he told James, the young boy surprised him by just watching as Sirius told him more. Penny did the same. She just looked at him. "I don't get along with my parents."

Penny nodded. "I'm assuming that's the short version."

"Yeah," Sirius laughed.

"So, what's the long version?"

Sirius raised a questioning eyebrow. "Do you want to hear the long version? It's really long."

"Yeah," Penny nodded and leaned forward so that she could rest her arms against her legs. "I would really like to hear the long version."

* * *

 _1974_

"… and now she thinks that I was the one who pulled that prank although it wasn't and I really need someone to find Lily and explain that I had nothing to do with it and she should give me a chance."

Penny sat on the couch in the common room with Sirius on one side and James on the other. Her hands rested against her thighs as she attentively listened to James rant in circles about an event which led to Lily yelling at him. Sirius had tuned in and out of the monologue but it looked like Penny had listened to it all because when James asked her a question she answered.

"No."

"No?" James looked at her as if she had kicked him in the stomach. "But why not Penny?"

"Because she doesn't deserve you." Penny replied in a stern voice. James was about to open his mouth again when she put her hand up as a signal for him to stop before he had started. "You have a huge crush on her James. I get that. But she's trying to get you to change and you shouldn't be forced to change for someone to date you. Eventually someone is going to come along who will love you for who you are and not for who they want you to be. Right Sirius?"

Sirius nodded. There was no missing the serenity in her voice. After two years of knowing each other Sirius could hear it as clearly as if it was an object standing in the middle of the room. Every word she said hit James right where they needed to and for a moment Sirius almost thought that she had managed to convince him.

"Yeah," he eventually said and squeezed James' shoulder. "She's right Prongs."

* * *

 _1975_

Penny had gone to Hogwarts for three years when the first rumour about her was spread like wildfire. Well, the first true rumour. Or semi-true rumour. Sirius did his best to miss it but it appeared as if people were talking about it no matter where he turned. It made him want to tear his hair out. He didn't want to hear the rumour from anyone but her. James had noticed his frustration and told him to go make himself something in the kitchen. So that's what he did and that's where he found Penny.

"So, this is where you're hiding," Sirius said with a smile on his face in a bad attempt to make things better. "Are you hungry, do you want me to make you something?"

"Aren't you going to ask me how I am?" Penny asked. Her eyes darted back and forth between the table and his worried grey eyes which seemed to find their way back to her no matter what.

Sirius shrugged. "I'm assuming that you're not fine."

"Do you want to know if the rumours are true or not?" she asked with a pitiful voice. Again, Sirius shrugged. "Well, what do you want to know?"

"Right now? Well, right now I want to know if you want crepes or pancakes? There's a huge difference between the two things," Penny laughed and looked up at him with a bright smile on her face. Sirius took a deep breath. "I don't care if the rumours are true or not. I love you either way."

Penny nodded. "It's true."

"Okay, do you want to talk about it?" Sirius asked but Penny quickly shook her head. "Do you want chocolate with your crepes then?"

* * *

 _1976_

No one needed to push Sirius and Penny together and neither of the two had to chase the other. One day it just felt right for Penny to ask him out on a date. The thought had been playing in the back of her head for a while when she all of the sudden started looking for him in the Great Hall. Sirius sat further down the table with the boys laughing about whatever idea they had cooked up. Penny just stood up and walked over to them. James noticed her presence first.

"Hello friend," he said in a happy voice which caused Sirius to turn around and smile at her. "For what reason do we owe the pleasure?"

"I'm just here to ask Sirius a question." Penny replied and looked down on the beautiful young man in front of her.

He had changed since he was a child. Hindsight had taught her that he was a cute child. She had never thought about it when they were growing up because she was too busy watching him getting into trouble and dealing with the bad hand that life had given him in terms of his family. But she wasn't blind about how attractive he had become. It was clear to anyone that she didn't want to be only his friend and vice versa.

"I'm all yours. What did you want to ask me?" he licked his lower lip and again Penny's mind was filled with various things they could do using only their lips. There were quite a few…

"Do you want to go on a date with me?" she asked after a moment of silence.

Sirius smiled. That happy-go-lucky smile which people rarely saw and only if he let them. "Yes, I'd love to."

* * *

 _1977_

"What are we doing here?" Penny asked as she looked around the empty flat. The only source of light came from the windows and it wasn't much since the rain was pouring down outside.

"I bought this flat," Sirius said as he stood leaned against one of the walls wearing his leather jacket and his hair pushed back in a bun. "And I wanted to show it to you."

"Why is that?"

"Because I was thinking that maybe you wanted to live here with me," his smile grew when Penny turned around to look at him. The little box in his back pocket felt like it was going to burn a hole through the fabric. "I was also thinking that maybe you would want to marry me?"

There were no grand gestures. There was no spectacular magic involved. This was Sirius Black asking the love of his life to spend the rest of their lives together and he did it the way he had approached all other subjects during their relationship. Because being with Penny was like breathing. It came naturally to him and he knew that marriage would be the same.

* * *

"Great writers talk about epic romances. They are often described as passionate and wild. They are described as problematic and complicated. I don't believe in that crap. I believe that this is the truest form of love. This relationship right here is about friendship, support and true love. Thanks to these two truly amazing people I am no longer striving to find my Juliet. I want to find my Penny," James smiled at them. "Congratulations to my brother for finding the love of his life so early. To Padfoot and Penny."

"Padfoot and Penny."

 **The end**


	15. I'm Afraid

**Title** : I'm Afraid

 **Characters** : Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, James Potter and Sirius Black.

 **AN** : I was reminded by the amazing Penny (padfootastic) that I have so many thoughts about Peter Pettigrew. He is turning into Regulus Back for me (Penny, you know what I mean). And I have these ideas about this beautiful character. This is one of those ideas. There will be more.

 **Word Count** : 396

* * *

Peter Pettigrew knew how to not be noticed. He knew how to explain seemingly unexplainable bruises. He knew when to smile and when to cry when getting himself and his best friends out of trouble. The chubby little boy with pale blond hair knew a lot of things. But there was one thing he didn't know how to do.

Peter Pettigrew didn't know how to not be _scared_.

He had always suffered from the nightmares that haunted him. The nightmares were rarely completely the same. But they always exposed his biggest fear: being completely alone and forced to fend for himself. He had done that for the majority of his life. He didn't want to go back to that ever again. By the time that he had turned fifteen years old the nightmares felt like they were a part of him. He was meant to always be afraid. He was meant to be tortured and reminded of the fact that he could lose his closest friends at any time. He was meant to live in constant fear of the unavoidable moment when he would once and for all be completely alone.

"What are you thinking about Wormtail?" Sirius laid on his stomach on his bed at the other side of the room. His brown hair was pushed back in a bun and his frown created wrinkles around his grey eyes.

Peter shook his head. "Nothing."

James and Sirius looked at each other and then Remus. It amazed Peter that he had the kind of friends he could silently communicate with. But when they used it against him Peter hated it as much as he normally loved it.

The boy with the raven-coloured hair and hazel eyes wasn't convinced. "You know you can tell us if something's wrong. Right?"

Peter nodded and forced himself to smile. "Of course."

For a few seconds, it felt like they were going to wait for him to speak. Peter had the words on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't fight through his fear. He couldn't say the words that he had told them so many times before in his dreams. He couldn't tell them that he was _afraid_.

So, he smiled again. Because he knew that they would drop the issue even if none of them would be fooled. "What kind of plans do we have for April 1st?"

 **The end**


	16. You Learn Something New Every Day

**Title** : You Learn Something New Every Day

 **Characters** : Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, James Potter and Sirius Black.

 **AN** : So, I read somewhere that McGonagall is said to have been a bit hard on Peter. That can be interpreted as in her being mean but I don't like that version. In my mind McGonagall can be a bit pushy but never mean.

This can be seen as a part of I'm Afraid which I recently published.

 **Word Count** : 739

* * *

The boys were walking slowly down a corridor. Sirius and James walked first, Remus and Peter were just behind them. They were on the receiving end of many confused and sometimes amused glances. Because the sound of chaos and mayhem followed them. James was slightly bent forward and he swung his arms back and forth other than when he ran his hand through his already messy hair. Sirius hands were pushed down his pockets and one side of his mouth kept pulling upwards as if his body disliked the idea of him not smiling. Remus faced every look they got given with the same patient smile and slight nod as if admitting that they were the cause of the shouting. Peter looked down on the ground. It was the only way to hide the brilliant smile that covered his chubby face.

The boys didn't mind getting into trouble. It was bound to happen every now and again considering everything they did. During the times when they got caught they often accepted their punishment because it was worth it. The prank had been pulled. The plan had been executed. This was the first time that they pulled a prank to test a theory. And being caught was a vital part of being able to test it.

Loud steps. One person was following them. One very angry woman they assumed. James nudged Sirius who's smile had grown. They all knew what was going to happen next.

"Boys," Minerva McGonagall sounded absolutely furious.

They stopped. But even if it hadn't been part of the plan they would have turned around at the sound of her voice. They could almost see fire coming from her ears and lightning bolts in her eyes. Her hat, arms and parts of her face was covered in chicken feathers.

"What happened to you professor?"

McGonagall glared at him. "Drop the act Mr. Lupin. I'm fully aware that this is your doing. It's far too advanced for your little minions."

"We have minions?" Sirius asked with curiosity but decided not to ask anything more when McGonagall gave him a look that he was sure could have put him six feet under. "Never mind."

"Good choice Mr. Black," she said and took a deep breath. "I guess I'll see you four in detention next week."

"Wait, professor McGonagall, we never said that we did it." James said and glanced at Sirius who nudged Remus. Both boys replied by saying no and I don't remember us admitting to anything.

"So, are you telling me that you're innocent?" McGonagall said in an amused tone of voice. "Are you really looking at me like that Mr. Potter while trying to convince me that you're innocent of this mayhem?"

James frowned for a moment and would have asked her what she meant by that if Sirius hadn't leaned his arm on James shoulder and gently patted his chest. Out of the corner of their eyes both boys saw how Remus nudged Peter and then the small boy looked up.

"I promise that we didn't do anything professor."

They could almost see the anger disappear from her face and her jaw went semi-slack as she looked at Peter. It felt like several hours had gone by when she mumbled something about cleaning up a mess and walked away. But they assumed that only a few minutes had gone by. When McGonagall disappeared around the corner James grabbed Peter's shoulder and turned the young boy around so that he was looking at him and Sirius.

"Do that look again." He ordered and watched as Peter's eyes appeared to become bigger, he tilted his head somewhat to the side and nervously fidgeted with his sleeves which James was sure hadn't been too long just second earlier.

"Well that's interesting," Sirius commented as he tilted his head to the side. "Is this really all you did?"

Peter nodded.

"In his defence," Remus started. "You do look really cute."

Sirius nodded before focusing on Peter's face again. "This is the expression that got us out of detention?"

Peter nodded again.

"That is interesting," Remus said in agreement with Sirius. "What are the odds of your face being just the thing we needed to get out of trouble?"

"I have no idea boys but I'm glad we decided to try our theory," James shrugged before putting one arm around Peter's shoulders. "You really do learn something new every day."

 **The end**


	17. James & Lily

**Title** : James & Lily

 **Characters** : James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

 **AN** : So, lately Lily and James has become such a complicated couple for me. Lily has become a really complicated character too. I guess that's part of the reason why I'm writing this. I want to try it and see if it feels right. I haven't even tried to plan this so we'll just have to see what it turns into.

Also, I know that the manbun wasn't popular when the Marauders were kids but Sirius Black in a manbun. I just really don't care although you are probably right. I love the image of Sirius with a manbun too much.

I am not trying to bash on any character. I am merely trying to point out that Lily, for example, is not a perfect character. We need to bring the woman down from her pedestal and make her a little more human. Okay this was a lie; I am bashing on Snape a little bit. But no one else.

The fact that this story is called James and Lily doesn't mean that they are end game in this story.

 **Word Count** : 1, 928

* * *

James didn't know what made him feel the way that he did. He didn't know what it was about Lily Evans that made him feel giddy now and he didn't know what had drawn him in, the first place. All he knew was that there was something about her. There was something that he, not liked, but loved. Her smile for starters. She rarely smiled at him but that didn't mean that she never smiled when he was around. The way she sat confidently in the back of the classroom because she had probably spent the day before reading up on the material they were going to talk about. James himself hated conflicts but Lily didn't. She faced them with her head first seemingly fearless and James could only hope that she would get out of it with all her limbs attached to her fit body. Because yeah, she was beautiful too.

It was a shame really. James thought as he saw her red hair out of the corner of his eye. He was looking for a book. Even if he couldn't see her completely his hand seemed to find its way to his raven hair. His hazel eyes glimmered underneath the glasses and he stood on his toes to reach the book further up. Lily looked between her own book and him. It was a real shame that she didn't feel the same way about him.

* * *

James scoffed.

"Not all pureblood families are cruel," Sirius Black argued from next to him. "Some of them are terrible privileged assholes with absolutely no understanding of what non-purebloods may experience but some of them are the best people there ever were and you have no right to trash talk them. Not in front of me."

His brown hair was pushed back into a bun, the grey eyes were stormy and he had changed his normally leaned back posture for one that was leaned across his desk; towards the person he was currently arguing. His lips were pulled upwards while he was showing all his teeth and wrinkles covered his forehead. His fists were clenched and the nails scratched the top of the desk. Lily Evans looked as angry as Sirius did but showed it in a completely different way. She bit her lower lip and her eyebrows were bent crookedly while she glared at him as if she was hoping that her stare alone would make him give up. James knew that wasn't going to be enough. She had insulted the two people she should never have insulted and Sirius was not going to let it go. Neither was James.

"You're just saying that because you're pureblood. You've probably never experienced anything bad in your entire life."

Sirius became scarily still. James almost held his breath as he waited for his best friend to react. If they had been in class then Sirius would have been able to hide behind a smile. But they weren't in class. There was no reason for him to stay. So, Sirius stood up. He hit the desk with his fist on the way up and he snarled at Lily.

"You know best Lily Evans." He said in a hissing tone that didn't suit his warm, full voice.

James remained still for a few minutes. He looked at Lily. Her cheeks had turned even redder. She was beautiful. But in that moment his crush on her had lessened.

"What?" she spat out the words. In that moment, she reminded him so much of Snape.

James shook his head as he stood. "Nothing at all."

* * *

Lily and James first laid eyes on each other when they were eleven years old. He fell for her even if he couldn't say those exact words. Maybe his childish mind didn't really understand what was going on inside of his small body. Maybe he wasn't meant to realise what his feelings were until much later. Lily was, for a very long time, convinced that she disliked him from the moment that she laid eyes on him. But that all changed when they were sixteen.

Lily Evans had a habit of reacting in the moment. She rarely stopped to think. She had yelled at James and his friends so many times when they started their sixth year because of things she thought that they had done. She had always managed to find herself at the wrong place at the wrong time. James knew this. But he never told her. He never tried to explain that what she saw was only partly the truth.

"Are you threatening me?" Snape asked. His black hair hung against his cheeks, giving the skin no possibility to breathe, and his pointy nose could probably poke someone's eye out.

Sirius nodded at the same time as Remus shook his head. Peter, the chubby boy whom puberty seemed to have forgotten with the dirty blond hair and blue eyes, stood completely still as his eyes went back and forth between the boys who stood in front of them. He was the only one who looked terrified.

"We're not threatening anyone," James answered. He could see Lily behind Snape and his friends. "You were bothering Peter here and we are just telling you to let him be. We're not looking for trouble."

"You're just saying that," Snape hissed with a venomous tone in his voice. "I know what kind of person you are. You're a spoiled brat, prancing around like you own this place. Well, I have some news for you; some day that is going to catch up with you and you'll pay for what you've done."

James rolled his eyes. "I'll mourn when that day actually comes."

* * *

James asked Lily out when they were in their fifth year. Up until that moment all he had done was talk about it. He had asked other girls on dates. Emmeline Vance for example. A girl with dark, curly black hair, pitch black eyes and a contagious smile. She was kind. She was brave and best of all she didn't want him to change himself. Emmeline Vance was not the only girl he took out on a date. But the beautiful Hufflepuff was the only girl he truly cared about. By the time he asked Lily out several rumours claimed that he had done so several times during the years.

Lily turned him down the first time.

She asked him out when they were in their sixth year. She asked him with a certain level of confidence. Almost too much confidence as if she was sure of the fact that he was going to say yes. He did. But James didn't like the fact that she was so sure that he would.

"How was the date?" Sirius asked from his seating position on his bed. He leaned forward so that part of his face was almost entirely covered by his hair.

James shrugged and didn't bother taking his clothes of before laying down on his bed. A moment of silence followed and then his bed cracked underneath the weight that was added to it when Sirius laid down next to him.

"I thought I was going to be happier." James said as he leaned his head onto Sirius shoulder and rested his hands against his stomach.

Sirius nodded. "I thought you were going to be happier too. You finally got to go on that date with her."

"Yeah," James agreed. "I did."

The silence said everything James didn't know how to say with words. It was nice, he thought. It was nice to have a relationship with someone when you didn't actually have to say anything and still be understood.

* * *

Their first kiss was nice.

James really wished that he could have thought that it was better than nice but he couldn't convince himself to think that it was any better or worse than that. It wasn't an amazing first kiss, it wasn't bad.

It was just nice. It was a nice first kiss.

* * *

"I don't want to argue with you Lily," James said as he walked into Common Room. Sirius, Peter and Remus looked up from where they sat on the couch with books in front of them as they wrote on essays in three different subjects. "I already told you that you won."

Lily followed shortly behind him. "I don't want to win. You're still mad at me. I want to fix this."

"Fix what?" James asked as he angrily ran his fingers through his hair and eventually put them to rest against his hips. "We don't agree about something. Why does that need fixing? Can't we just accept that we don't think the same way?"

"But your argument is illogical." Lily said while wagging her finger at him.

James shook his head as he gestured at her with both hands. "But your arguments are emotionless."

"What does emotions have to do with any of this?" Lily shouted angrily.

James opened his mouth to shout back but quieted himself. "I don't want to argue with you Lily. I am going to my room and I don't want you to follow me."

Lily laughed. "James Potter running away from an argument."

"Yes," James replied before turning his back on her. "And if you're surprised about that sweetheart than maybe you don't know me as well as you think that you do."

* * *

Lily and James. James and Lily.

They had an expiration date. Six months after their first date apparently. They had been a couple for six months when they broke up. The relationship that the entire school had been interested in. It had been exaggerated that people had bets but there were people who guessed what was going to happen to them. Most believed that they would end up marrying and having children. Some were even hoping seeing as the rumours had made James sound like a lovesick puppy who thought of no one else but Lily Evans. No one was going to believe what had actually happened. They only wanted the story that fit with what they believed to be the truth.

"You broke up with her." Sirius stated with a cigarette hanging between his lips.

James nodded.

"But everyone's thinking that Lily broke up with you?" Sirius breathed out the smoke and leaned against the wall. "How come you haven't corrected anyone?"

James shrugged. "People are going to believe whatever they want to anyway. It doesn't matter what I tell them."

Sirius looked at his best friend with a smile on his face. He knew that even if James told everyone that he was over her there was still a part of him that felt something for the redheaded girl even if that part was much smaller than before.

"I think it was a good choice mate," he said. James raised an eyebrow as he breathed out smoke as if saying, oh yeah? "Besides, James and Lily didn't sound that good anyway. James and Lily, Lily and James."

He repeated their names as if tasting them and every time a frown appeared on his normally beautiful face. "See what I mean?"

"Yeah," James played along. "I see what you mean. What do you think sounds better, do you have any thoughts?"

Sirius winked at him as he put the cigarette out. "Oh yeah, how about James and… Emmeline maybe?"

"Yeah," James laughed. An image of the beautiful girl appeared in his mind and he couldn't help but smile. "It sounds almost as right as Sirius and Penny."

Sirius nodded. "I couldn't have said it better myself, brother."

 **The end**


	18. Right or Left?

**Title** : Right or Left?

 **Characters** : Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, James Potter and Severus Snape.

 **Prompts** : Write about someone looking for direction in their life. Minimum 300 words, no maximum.

 **AN** : Written for Assignment #4 History of Muggles, Task #3B on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments).

 **Warning** : Very AU because Peter is not described the way JK described him. A little Snape bashing.

 **Word Count** : 911

* * *

Peter Pettigrew struggled with separating his right hand from his left. It was a fact that he had never told anyone before. Purely, because it didn't matter. So, what if he didn't know what was right or left? He still knew which way he was supposed to run when he was trying to get away from Snape and his goonies. Or which way he was supposed to take to get his friends away from the most recent place of whatever prank they had executed that time.

" _You are going to die Peter Pettigrew. Unless you pick the right side."_

Those words echoed through his mind as he mindlessly walked through the castle. His brown hair had gotten long again since his mother's last horrible attempt at cutting it. The few months of living at the castle had made him gain the few kilos that he had lost during the summer of trying to fend for himself. He had a brand-new scar that went through his right eyebrow. It still earned him attention in the form of worried glances from his best friends. Peter always pretended that he didn't see. Not that he fooled them. It was an odd situation that they had never experienced before. They knew that he was hiding something. He knew that they knew that he was hiding something. Peter never approached them and they never confronted him about what was going on. They were at a completely standstill.

"Hey Wormy," Peter directed his eyes from the floor and glanced to the side. He hadn't even realised that he had reached the end of the corridor. Now he had to pick and go either left or right. Not that Peter knew which way was which. Sirius had called his name and were standing at the end of one side of the corridor with James and Remus.

Peter's hands were pushed down his pockets so he merely nodded towards them. He was about to take a step in their direction when he heard someone else call his name.

"Come here Peter." It was a voice that sent shivers down his spine.

The voice belonged to a person who had been whispering terrifying truths into his ear for months. Peter glanced in the other direction and saw Snape. The black hair hung around his head like a wet curtain, the sharp nose as always made Peter think that it could poke someone's eye out and he stood out amongst the graceful purebloods he surrounded himself with. Peter really hated Snape's voice.

* * *

"Those people that you call your friends won't be able to protect you once school is over and reality hits. You will probably die alone and before you have experienced anything. You will die a nobody," Snape looked down on him as he continued his little speech. Peter felt cold in that moment even if he was inside and protected from the howling wind that accompanied the autumn which had come to Scotland with a bam. Snape put his hand on Peter's shoulder but Peter quickly shrugged it away and took a step back. "Make the right decision. You can either die alone and young because you weren't smart, because you thought that those people could protect you. Or you can join the winning team. It's your decision Peter and you're going to have to make it quick."

Peter felt a shiver go down his spine. Although the words came from a teenage boy that didn't mean that the they completely lacked truthfulness. The threats could and would be carried out at some point. The idea made the hair stand on his arms. Peter was terrified of dying. That was another fact that he had never told anyone. He was terrified of unconsciousness and avoided sleeping because of it. But there was one sleep that he couldn't avoid ever and telling himself that it was unnecessary to be afraid didn't help. The big, dark unknown that was death scared him more than anything in the entire world. Almost.

* * *

"Mate," James said and earned Peter's full attention. "We need you."

Peter smiled and nodded. The only thing he feared more than death was being forced to fend for himself. Maybe he would die alone and young, maybe he wouldn't. Peter didn't know. But he did know that he had friends who would lay down their lives for him. He had friends who would stand up for him if he ever needed them. Peter looked at his friends. He saw James with his black, messy hair and the glasses that always looked like they were going to slide down, Sirius with his brown, graceful hair and the determined aura that he almost never lost and then there was Remus. While James had a jumpy kind of energy about him and Sirius had an empowering strong one, Remus had a calmer energy. It was the kind of energy that made you feel comfortable and calm. It never failed to make Peter feel as if he belonged.

Snape had been right. He would have to make a choice. At first glance, it had appeared difficult to him. A hard decision with two choices but he could only go down one path. Peter had allowed himself to be fooled to think that it was going to be difficult when in fact it wasn't.

"Yes, I'm coming." Peter said and slowly walked towards his friends. The choice was in fact rather easy.

Right or left?

 **The end**


	19. Some Type of Silence

**Title** : Some Type of Silence

 **Characters** : Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

 **Prompts** : Write about someone getting arrested. Minimum 300 words, no maximum.

 **AN** : Written for Assignment #4 History of Muggles, Task #5A on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments).

Also, I really have no idea where this came from... I shocked myself when I wrote this and yeah...

 **Warning** : Mention of indecent exposure.

 **Word Count** : 813

* * *

Silence can be perceived as comfortable or uncomfortable. But the truth is that whether or not one categorises the silence in either one of the two groups depends on the beholder. Or the listener? Because silence could truly never be either or. Silence was always just silence. That has, however, never stopped human beings from making attempts at categorising it.

Sirius didn't know what kind of silence this was. He knew that he was grateful that Remus had stopped pacing back and forth across the room while shouting insults at every person he could possibly blame for their predicament. Although Sirius was still worried about his friend since Remus was sitting with his head leaning forward, his arms resting against his naked legs and his hands leaning against his neck. He hadn't spoken a word since telling James to shut up and that he didn't want to hear any more; they had already seen too much of each other to last a lifetime. Sirius had wanted to tell Remus that was wrong but had managed to stop himself. It probably wouldn't help.

"This is insane." Peter whispered from his corner of the room on the bed next to Remus.

His brown hair had gotten dry, thankfully, but dark spots on the t-shirt showed that he hadn't completely dried from his bath in the fountain. Sirius had never seen his eyes look that big before. He had also never seen Peter wear a pink t-shirt that thankfully was just big enough to cover his junk. Sirius considered himself comfortable with nudity, especially with these guys since they had shared dormitory for six years. But that didn't mean that he wanted to see them naked all the time. Especially not in this environment. More for their benefit than his.

"It is," James said from his spot against the wall. A smile appeared on his face. It was the same smile that had made Remus scream at him just moments earlier. "But hey, at least we're experiencing something new. I've never seen the inside of this place before."

James ran his hand through his raven hair and stretched his arms upward until a cracking sound was heard from his shoulders. When they split up the clothes between themselves James had proclaimed that he had never been as thankful for his height as right then. If it wasn't for his height then he wouldn't have ended up wearing a pair of flattering grey sweatpants. Peter had been unsure of whether his height was a gift or a burden. He was short enough so that the t-shirt could work as a dress; thankfully that meant he could keep himself covered but it also meant that he was the only one who could wear the pink t-shirt. Remus wore a coat that ended above his knees and made them wonder what kind of superhuman had worn it before him. Sirius had a pair of orange shorts which somehow suited him, in spite of the colour, but he was freezing his ass off.

"Obviously James," Remus said with an aggravated voice. Sirius looked over at the boy with the dirty blond hair. He was completely unable to hide the anger that showed itself in the way his voice vibrated just ever so slightly. "We've never been arrested for indecent exposure before."

James nodded as if truly thinking about what Remus had told him. "Good point Moony."

"That's two new experiences," Peter commented from the bed where he sat next to Remus trying his very best to keep himself covered with the t-shirt. Not so much from the other Marauders but more from the people who kept glancing at him from the cell next to theirs.

Sirius didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry. So, he held his hand over his mouth to hide the fact that the corners of his mouth were pulled upwards into a smile. "What did you say Peter?"

"Two experiences," he said again. This time both Remus and James looked at him too. Peter raised two fingers in the air. "We've never been arrested for indecent exposure and we've never seen been in a cell like this before. Well, obviously now we have so we've had two new experiences."

Sirius wanted to laugh again when he saw the look on Remus face which could only be interpreted as a silent scream for help. James shoulders shook and he leaned his head forward so that all they could see was the raven hair on top of his head.

Sirius coughed and somehow managed to hide the laughter. "That's a good point Peter."

His body shook against the stone wall he was leaning against. He bit his lower lip until the shaking subsided and then, instead of speaking, Sirius decided that it was probably best if he allowed them to fall into some type of silence.

 **The end**


	20. With a Smile

**Title** : With a Smile

 **Characters** : Sirius Black and James Potter.

 **Prompts** : Write about your characters last (I chose the last time Sirius spoke to James). [Emotion] Anxiety, [dialogue] "What in heavens are you blathering about?" and [word] teacup. Minimum 750 words and maximum 3, 000 words.

 **Word Count** : 1, 516

* * *

Sirius normally wasn't a superstitious man. He didn't believe in the muggle stories that he had read that black cats were supposedly bad luck or that breaking a mirror meant you were going to experience seven years of bad luck. He was not the kind of guy to walk across the street because he would have to walk underneath a latter if he continued on the path he was currently on. But things had changed. Sirius still didn't believe that there was such a thing as bad luck. But he was starting to think that maybe it wouldn't hurt if he started being a little more cautious.

The flat was pitch black when he opened the door. A lazy wave with the wand caused some candles to light up together with a few lamps that was strategically placed throughout the flat. They guided him first to the kitchen where he took out his favourite teacup and poured some dark brown liquid into it. He was never one to follow orders. Especially not from a teacup. If he wanted to drink coffee in a teacup then he damn well would. And with the steaming hot liquid Sirius followed the lamps and the floating candles to his next destination which just happened to be his bedroom. He put the cup on the square table next to his bed and began removing his clothes.

"Ugh," he groaned when some of his muscles protested. In the dark, no one could see the black and blue bruises that covered his back. Sirius had a hunch that it looked about as bad as it felt but he was too tired to care. He was too tired for most things.

A sigh of relief escaped him as he laid down on his bed and nestled into the pillows. His brown hair was wet from the rain. But at least, thanks to the bun, the water didn't run down his neck quite as much as before. His upper body looked like a canvas belonging to a very bad or a very good painter. Or maybe only someone who used few colours, more specifically blue, green, yellow, purple, black and splashes of red. He rubbed his grey eyes and then he reached for the mirror. The movement made a mask of pain flash across his face for a few seconds but by the time the face of James Potter appeared it had vanished. Or at least he thought so.

"You look like shit Padfoot." James said. Sirius almost told him that he didn't look any better but decided against it. But it would have been true. James looked a lot worse than the last time they had spoken.

His raven-coloured hair had always been messy but now there was something maniac about it, every few seconds his hand went through it but not because it was a habit. It looked more like he performed the movement because he needed to do something to get that nervous energy out of him. The hazel eyes were more energised than ever before and he looked like he was pumped on caffeine which Sirius knew that he wasn't since he had given that stuff up when he was a teenager. He was skinnier than he used to be too. The muscles that came from hours of exercising had withered away from lack thereof.

"I know," Sirius replied instead of commenting on the appearance of his best friend. He assumed that James knew how he looked so there was really no reason for Sirius to tell him what he already knew. "Fighting a war is hard you know."

He could feel James analysing everything he said, his every movement and particularly the bruises on his upper body which he could clearly see since Sirius didn't have the strength to hold the mirror high enough to hide it. His brown hair was dirtier than normal. He too was skinnier but Sirius had always been on the skinny side. His grey eyes weren't as stormy as normal. They were hazy and dull from exhaustion which had hit him like a ton of bricks the moment he walked through the door.

"Hiding isn't very easy either." James said as he moved around on the couch to get more comfortable. Sirius could see Harry's sleeping form lying against his chest and felt his heart melt and simultaneously break at the sight.

James had never been good at hiding his anxiety. At least not to Sirius. The emotion shone through in the way he spoke to people, he became more kind and loving towards his friends than normal, and in an obvious desire not to sleep. When they were younger Sirius had stayed awake to try and help him but he soon realised that James didn't always need to talk; he just needed someone to lie next to him. He needed someone to hold or someone to hold him.

"Hey Prongs, do you believe in bad luck? Or do you think that things happen because it was meant to be?" Sirius asked.

The corners of James mouth turned upwards into a smile. "What in heavens are you blathering about?"

"Do you think that some things are meant to happen and that there is nothing we can do about it…" Sirius continued while sounding amused. "Or do you think that we can control everything and when something bad happens to us it's really just because we didn't take the proper actions against it?"

James hand went up and down Harry's back and he leaned his head slightly forward so that his nose touched the raven coloured hair on his son's head, all while looking thoughtful. "Are you turning superstitious on me Padfoot?"

Sirius shrugged. "Absolutely not. What makes you think that? Are you turning superstitious?"

"Yeah, a little bit," James admitted and chuckled. "Lily thinks I'm an idiot. I've stopped looking out the window because for some reason I am sure that if I'll die if I see the last leaf of autumn fall down."

"That's illogical," Sirius commented with a snort. "You wouldn't even know if it was the last leaf. Also, autumn doesn't necessarily end because the last leaf has fallen where you are or even in this country."

"Well yeah mate, I'm aware of that," James retorted while rolling his eyes. "But being superstitious isn't about being logical. It's something people use to protect themselves from what they're afraid of."

So much was left unsaid during the silence that appeared between them. Sirius knew, just as well as James, what he was afraid of even if he didn't say the words out loud. Sirius took a deep breath. A question had been nagging him. It had been in the back of his mind every time he saw his best friend but so far, he had never dared say it out loud.

"Are you afraid?" Sirius began with a slightly quivering voice that was unlike him. "Are you afraid of dying?"

"Are you?" James asked without missing a beat.

Sirius shrugged. "I'm more afraid of you dying then I am of dying myself."

"Yeah," James nodded. "Me too. About you obviously."

For some reason, a muggle movie appeared in Sirius mind. They had watched it when they were younger. It was one of the first things they had done after helping James and Lily move to Godric's Hollow. Sirius didn't remember much of what had happened in the movie but he remembered that someone died. He remembered that the person cried because of all the things he hadn't said to the people that he loved; and now he would never get the chance to tell them what he had on his mind. Sirius couldn't understand that. And he still couldn't even if they were faced with the risk of dying every day. He had told everyone he cared about exactly how he felt. There were no words left unsaid. Especially not between him and James.

"If you had to go," Sirius began and looked directly at James face. Almost as if he was trying to memorize the face of his best friend just in case something was to happen. "If you had to die young. How would you want to die?"

James laughed. "I'd want to go with a smile. What about you?"

"Yeah," Sirius nodded. "With a smile. That sounds like a plan brother."

Then the conversation changed to Harry. They had never struggled with going back and forth between easy and hard subjects. This time was no exception. Eventually Sirius told him goodnight and then he put the mirror on the table next to his bed.

He wasn't a superstitious man. Sirius had never been one to believe that black cats gave bad luck or that breaking a mirror gave you seven years of bad luck. And still, when he went to bed that night Sirius turned his back to the window. He wasn't going to be the one to see the last leaf fall from the trees. He didn't know if it would help but he knew that it wouldn't hurt.

 **The end**


	21. The Dog and The Rat

**Title** : The Dog and The Rat

 **Characters** : Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, James Potter and Remus Lupin.

 **Pairing** : Sirius x Peter

 **Prompts** : Write about one of the following pairings: Sirius x Peter, Sirius x Minerva, Sirius x Teddy or Sirius x Katie. I chose Sirius x Peter and [emotion] fear, [dialogue] "Oh, please cry me a river", [random prompt] a character must hit another in some way and [word] cloak. Minimum 750 words and maximum 3, 000 words.

 **Warning** : AU in so many ways. Peter is always extremely AU when I write him. Violence and some swearing.

 **Word Count** : 2, 416

* * *

Very few people realised that Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black had a lot in common. Their backgrounds for one. They could not be compared to James' whom had the fortune of growing up with supportive and loving parents. Even Remus, in spite of the trauma that would permanently damage his family, had a better childhood than those two. No, both Sirius and Peter had horrible childhoods. The events that made their childhoods traumatic however differed.

Peter, very early on, came face to face with the realisation that nothing was certain. The outside world was cruel and while other children were taught the importance of kindness; Peter quickly learned that what mattered was being stronger than others or, if nothing else, being connected to the strongest. Sadly, that made him changeable. Before he went to Hogwarts Peter became known for being a turncoat. He didn't mind. He was protecting himself and so far, he hadn't really cared about anyone; they hadn't cared about him either.

Sirius on the other hand became strong from the constant abuse his parents threw his way. He learned that people who genuinely cared and would protect him were very few so he became resilient, impossible to crack because he learned how to be strong alone. Sirius became fiercely loyal once he found someone who was worth it, his trust wasn't easily broken. But once it was Sirius didn't hesitate about leaving whoever he determined wasn't a good person. So far, no one had been the exception to the rule. For either of the two boys.

It came as no shock that the boys were weary of each other at first. It didn't last long. But then again, how could it consider everything they experienced in just the first month of going to Hogwarts. As it turns out, fewer things brought people together like having to see Madame Pomfrey and lie about why they were blue. Sirius was a good liar. Peter was a better liar. Sirius could still remember perfectly the way he looked at Madame Pomfrey and told her some idiotic story about practicing his magic and accidentally making some ink explode. Somehow, she bought it; when Sirius and Peter left that same day both boys were sure that they would be back many times in the future six years.

But neither knew where they would find themselves in 1981. Not even Peter in spite of his ability of always being a few steps before everyone else. Sirius didn't know what would happen when he approached his childhood best friend. The years had not been kind to Peter Pettigrew, Sirius thought, as his grip around his wand hardened. But he couldn't bring himself to feel sorry for the man. Not after what he had done to James. To Lily. _To Harry_.

* * *

"Peter." Sirius didn't know what was going to happen. His strength had been acting in the moment. Taking whatever life threw at him. Thinking ahead had always been Peter's strong side. Sirius had never hated that about him before now.

Peter was terrified. There was no other way of describing him. He turned around at the sound of his name being spoken. His brown hair had been shaved and were only a few inches tall. He had lost weight. His cheekbones weren't normally that visible against his skin. Sirius would know better than anyone. He used to think that he knew all parts of Peter better than anyone. A shaky breath escaped his lips. He had been wrong. Sirius didn't know Peter better than anyone. Not all parts of him anyway. Fear was written all over Peter's face in the way wrinkles appeared on his forehead, the way he struggled to look Sirius in the eyes and how he made himself smaller.

He had been hurt and permanently changed by the war. Sirius had too but not as much as Peter. Sirius still had dark flowy hair, he had pushed it back in a bun but strands had escaped on the way there. His grey eyes were red and puffy from crying and there was an aura of hurt that radiated from him. Peter could feel it. He knew Sirius well enough to see the things he tried to hide.

"Sirius," a snarl appeared on his face. He felt like he was being split in two. One part of him hated Peter for what he had done. Sirius hated him more than he had ever hated a living person before. The other part reminded Sirius of that first kiss. It reminded him of the times when Peter would act against his natural instincts because Sirius needed him to. "I'm so sorry."

Sirius scoffed. Peter was still beautiful even if he looked like he had gone to hell and back. The fact that he was saying the most stupid things Sirius had ever heard didn't do anything to change that.

"Oh, cry me a river." The man answered in a mocking and angry tone hoping that Peter would only hear the anger.

Peter looked like he had been hit across the face or in the stomach judging by the way pain flashed across his face. He took several deep breaths. Sirius couldn't tell if he was silent for long or if everything happened quickly. Images from when they went to school flashed before his eyes.

* * *

He remembered noticing that he felt differently about Peter. It hadn't always been like that. One day it just happened. One day, just like any other day, Sirius looked up from where he was lying on his bed and glanced over at the other side of the room. Peter, scrawny and skinny, with way too long brown hair was looking around for a shirt. Sirius felt his heart beat quicker. He wondered if Peter felt as skinny as he looked…

"What are you thinking about?" James asked as he sat down in front of Sirius and blocked his view.

The raven-haired boy pushed his glasses further up his nose to stop them from falling off and ran his hand through his hair while his hazel-coloured eyes glimmered in a way that made Sirius sure of the fact that James knew exactly what he had been looking at _and thinking about_.

"You Prongs," Sirius replied with a wink. "There's only you."

James hummed and moved out of the side so that Peter once more came into sight. The small boy, who always looked younger than he was, appeared to be amused by their antics; as usual. Sirius hadn't told him but he loved Peter's smile. He rarely looked genuinely happy so when he did Sirius felt butterflies in his stomach.

* * *

He remembered the first kiss.

It wasn't completely out of the blue. For a few months they had been acting weird around each other. Small comments here and there had let the other person know that both felt differently now. Something had changed even if no one could pinpoint exactly what that was. They didn't hide it. Remus and James saw it happen right in front of their very eyes but had nothing to say. Sirius was bolder than Peter. That came as no surprise to any of them. But what led to their first kiss did surprise them. Sirius most of all.

"Are you kidding me?" Peter paced back and forth in their dormitory.

Sirius and James were seated on Remus bed while he was doing the best he could to patch them up. Both were sporting bruises, blood had dried on various places on their bodies, Sirius eye was swollen and James lower lip had split. Remus looked as unhappy with the situation as Peter was acting like.

Sirius glanced at James whom shrugged as if telling him that dealing with Peter was Sirius job.

"Look Peter…"

The small boy stopped dead in his tracks. He raised one hand and Sirius stopped talking. He didn't know if it was the look in Peter's eyes, the lack of emotion on his face or if the hand movement reminded him of how his mother would make him stop arguing with her. But he stopped.

"There is nothing you – either of you – can say to make me less angry," he stated. Although Sirius preferred it when they weren't fighting he had to admit that he liked the sixteen-year-old Peter who could finally tell him and James when they had been idiots. He sighed and sat down on his bed on the opposite side. "You do realise that you could have gotten yourselves killed?"

His voice cracked. It hadn't done that in a very long time and Sirius hated that he was the reason for it. Nowadays it only did that when something had seriously distressed him.

"Yeah," James was the one to answer. He could hardly look at Peter. His hand twitched as Remus put some sort of ointment on his lip which would make it mend itself. "We know. But we had to do something because…"

"We weren't going to tell him."

James ignored Sirius attempts at interrupting him. "Because we heard them talking about you and bragging about being the reason behind your" – James gestured towards his eyes – "blackeye and Sirius came up with an idea so that we could…"

"Sirius?" James became quiet at the sound of Peter's voice. He glanced at his best friend of almost six years. He had never seen Sirius lips so thin, was that a pearl of sweat making its way down his forehead or were James imagining things? "You did it for me?"

Sirius shrugged. He tried to look nonchalant but failed. And he knew that he had failed. "Yeah, I mean why wouldn't I? I love you."

No one guessed that Peter would laugh or call Sirius a bloody moron before sitting down on his knees in front of the bed and kissing him.

Sirius could still feel the warmth that spread through his chest. He remembered thinking that he did not suspect Peter to be that good at kissing. He was both gentle and pushy at the same time. Sirius had kissed many times at the age of sixteen but this was the first time that someone kissed him the way he wanted them to. Desire, ease, tenderness and heat all rolled up in that one kiss. He would never forget it.

* * *

Then the images changed. The images of everything that had been good turned dark. They were slowly replaced with dark images, of James looking at him with dead eyes from where he laid unmoving on the floor, his cloak lying shredded next to him; the agonising screaming from Harry and Lily with tears that had not yet dried on her cheeks.

"So, this is how it's going to end." Peter's comment made him even more angry and Sirius didn't think that was even possible.

He wanted to throw up, he wanted to cry bust most of all he wanted to cross the street and punch that traitor in his face. And since Sirius was never a man to deny himself the simple pleasures provided by life, he did just that. He crossed the street and swung his arm backwards. Peter didn't dodge him the first time that Sirius fist hit his face. Not the second time either. Or the third. Sirius fist became sore quickly and the pain inside of him didn't subside no matter how many times he punched Peter's face. After a moment Sirius stopped. Peter was lying on the ground and Sirius had one leg on each side of him while pointing his wand at Peter's throat.

"How could you do this?" he brokenly whispered in between deep breaths. "How could you do this to James, to Lily, to Harry?"

Sirius wanted to ask how Peter could have done it to him. He didn't, he couldn't, but that didn't mean that Peter didn't hear it. The question was so obviously hanging in the air between them. _Why did you do this to me?_ Peter's face was bleeding. His nose was bleeding and one eye were starting to swell up.

He made no effort to get away instead he looked Sirius dead in the eye. "I did it for you."

"Wh - What?"

"The Dark Lord thought you knew where they were. He thought you were the secret keeper. So, I told him that I was but he didn't believe me," Peter closed his eyes and almost looked as if he was going to drift out of consciousness. "I had to tell them where James and Lily was to save you. So, I did, because I knew that you would never betray James no matter what they threatened to do to you and I couldn't bear the thought of them getting to you… I did it because I love you."

Sirius pushed himself away from Peter. He had the start of so many sentences, so many questions, inside his mind but nothing came out. Peter pushed himself up in a sitting position. He was unsteady, even when seated, and when his upper body fell forward it took every ounce of strength for Sirius to not catch him. In the last moment Peter caught himself and then leaned back onto the palm of his hands. He had always been good at seeing the consequences of his actions, of guessing what would come from certain events in the future. He assumed something like this would happen.

"I can never forgive you for this." Sirius leaned his head into the palm of his hands so that he couldn't see Peter.

He knew he had to do something. Sirius knew he had to move but he couldn't. He looked at Peter against his own will. The man he hated while simultaneously also loving. He could feel his strength crumbling as he slowly realised that he didn't know what to do.

"I know," Peter replied. Although there were no emotions on his face Sirius could hear Peter's heart breaking by the sound of his voice.

Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black had something in common in that moment. They had, in fact, many things in common. They were both heartbroken. Neither knew what to say to each other. And for the first time their strengths failed them. Sirius, who was normally good at acting in the moment, had no idea what he was supposed to do and Peter, who was normally good at guessing what things could lead to in the future, had no idea what would happen next.

 **The end**


	22. There You Are

**Title** : There You Are

 **Characters** : Sirius Black, Penny Singh, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

 **AN** : There is a part of this that I used as a drabble in this fic. I decided to develop it into a somewhat longer one-shot.

 **Word Count** : 1, 630

* * *

Some greetings are more welcoming than others. That is a fact that cannot be argued against. Greeting someone by saying hello is by no means rude or mean but it's not as nice as other types of greetings. The three simple words 'there you are', for example, is a lot nicer than a simple hello. Because if you greet someone by saying 'there you are' then you are somehow assuming that they would arrive at some point. Hence, the greeting is a lot nicer than some other greetings that one could choose to use. The type of greeting one uses depends on what type of friendship you have with the person in question.

Some friendships build up slowly over time while other friendships just appear. One day you wake up and you realise that you have gotten used to, no you have come to expect someone to just be there like a constant presence in your life. It just hits you that this person that you knew nothing about before a few months previously had become such a regular part of your life that you could no longer imagine what life would be without them. Some people just appear in your life one day and nothing has to grow. You merely take on look at that person and you decide in your mind that this person is your new friend.

For Sirius that – being hit by the realisation that someone was his friends – happened two times. The first time was when he met James, Remus and Peter. One day when he opened his eyes he realised that these three boys had become his best friends.

* * *

"He's not up yet?" Sirius could hear the voice of Remus Lupin vaguely through his deep sleep.

He was exhausted. There was no other way of describing it. The exhaustion was the worst kind too. It felt like it came from the core of his very being and he was sure that something was very wrong with him. But he wasn't about to tell them that.

Sirius felt someone put a hand on his forehead and that was all it took for him to force his eyes open to see that he was surrounded by the three boys. James Potter was at the front. His hazel eyes shone with worry and there were wrinkles on his forehead. His glasses were sliding down and almost as if he enjoyed the adrenaline rush he didn't try to stop them until they were just at the tip of his nose. Remus Lupin were sniffling. The young boy had been in a terrible shape a week before. So bad that he had to go home to his mother. Sirius didn't have the heart to tell the sandy-blond haired boy that no one bought his excuse. No one being James, Sirius and Peter. Peter Pettigrew looked at him as if he was dying. As if Sirius was dying that is. His brown hair had been cut in different lengths and his eyes looked huge due to the fact that he was so skinny. But what caught Sirius attention was the one thing they all had in common. They looked worried and it felt like it was him that they were worried about.

"How are you feeling?" James asked slowly and almost in a whispering tone of voice.

Sirius hadn't realised that his throat was aching until he told James that he was fine and he sounded as if he had swallowed a crow. His normally smooth voice, bordering on the bright side of the spectrum, was horse and every time he said something it felt as if his throat was about to burst. But that didn't stop him from making an attempt at flat out lying to the boys.

"I'm fine," he said and shrugged. But the more he woke up the more he felt that he wasn't fine. That was really far from the truth. His head felt as if it was going to explode and at some point, during the night, their dormitory had gotten a lot colder. A lot colder!

Sirius tried to get out of bed but soon felt a hand on his chest. James were pushing him back. Maybe it was his exhaustion, maybe it was the look of pure determination on James face but Sirius didn't try to get up again.

"You are not going to class," the raven-haired boy said in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "You're sick, you're staying here and so am I."

"Me too." Remus said and nodded.

Peter raised his hand. "Me three."

"Good," James pointed at Remus. "You go to the kitchen and get something to drink and something to eat. He needs juice and tea with honey. Improvise the rest." – James pointed at Peter – "You go get some painkillers from Madame Pomfrey."

He turned to face Sirius. "And you stay still. Don't you dare get out of bed. That is an order."

Sirius laughed and winked at him. Normally he would have told James that he was older than him. Sirius was supposed to be ordering people around not James. But he didn't feel like it this time. "Okay dad."

* * *

Sirius didn't know at the age of twelve that the term friends wouldn't be strong enough for describe the relationship he had with the boys.

The second time that happened was when he met Penny. One day it just hit him that she was one of the most important people in his life. It was that one time when James were whining about Lily hating him for something that he hadn't done. By the time Penny entered the room Sirius had already heard the entire story. James had paced the room while telling him about the injustice that had taken place earlier that day.

The Marauders were not the kind of people who didn't take credit for their own work. When they had performed a prank, they owned up to it. To the right people naturally, they didn't want to get attention too many times. Sometimes they even took credit for pranks they hadn't executed. But those were few and far between. This prank, the one that James had been accused of, was not something he or any of the other three would have taken credit for or even come up with in the first place.

By the time Penny arrived Sirius had understood that two things annoyed James. The first thing was that he didn't particularly enjoy being held responsible for a crime that he had not committed. Not that it mattered to McGonagall when Lily told the professor about what James supposedly had done. It was her words against him and she had been on less detentions than he had. The second thing that he didn't particularly enjoy was the fact that Lily was pissed at him. There was no other way of describing it.

Sirius sighed deeply as he listened to the story again. Penny sat next to him and since Sirius had already heard everything once he decided to look at her instead.

"… and now she thinks that I was the one who pulled that prank although it wasn't and I really need someone to find Lily and explain that I had nothing to do with it and she should give me a chance."

Penny sat on the couch in the common room with Sirius on one side and James on the other. Her hands rested against her thighs as she attentively listened to James rant in circles about an event which led to Lily yelling at him. Sirius had tuned in and out of the monologue but it looked like Penny had listened to it all because when James asked her a question she answered.

"No."

"No?" James looked at her as if she had kicked him in the stomach. "But why not Penny?"

"Because she doesn't deserve you." Penny replied in a stern voice. James was about to open his mouth again when she put her hand up as a signal for him to stop before he had started. "You have a huge crush on her James. I get that. But she's trying to get you to change and you shouldn't be forced to change for someone to date you. Eventually someone is going to come along who will love you for who you are and not for who they want you to be. Right Sirius?"

Sirius nodded. There was no missing the serenity in her voice. After two years of knowing each other Sirius could hear it as clearly as if it was an object standing in the middle of the room. Every word she said hit James right where they needed to and for a moment Sirius almost thought that she had managed to convince him.

"Yeah," he eventually said and squeezed James' shoulder. "She's right Prongs."

It wasn't the advice that made Sirius realise what a natural part of his life Penny had become. He thought his life but in reality, that meant that she had become a regular presence in all Marauders lives. It wasn't about the way she gave James real attention. She was kind that way and wanted to help people if she could. No, the thing that made Sirius realise how important she was to them was the way James greeted her. It told him that Penny was not just their friend anymore. The friendship had grown, it had become more powerful over the years and now no one could remember what their lives had been like without her. All of that Sirius hit Sirius like a ton of bricks before Penny gave her advice, before she had even heard the story, when James greeted Penny with three simple words.

" _There you are_."

 **The end**


	23. The First Day of Autumn

**Title** : The First Day of Autumn

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

 **Prompts** : [Colour] Pumpkin orange, [word] cursed, [emotion] ecstatic, [dialogue] "I really dislike that man", [word] stars, [random prompt] write about your character struggling to come to terms with something and [word] spoon.

 **AN** : Written for the "One Character Only" Competition.

 **Warning** : Peter is AU!

 **Word Count** : 1, 389

* * *

Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew had since their first year at Hogwarts been surrounded by a certain level of _mystery_ in lack of other words. Expectations were put upon them based on the things they did and rumours were spread due to the little information the other students had about them. The boys, they had named themselves the Marauders, didn't think they were _that_ mysterious. They weren't putting any effort into keeping information about themselves hidden. But then again, they weren't the loudest of people either. They knew how to speak, they knew how to get attention, without sharing anything they considered personal.

Sirius Black, at the age of almost thirteen years old, had just lost his boyish appearance in favour of something that resembled a teenager. He had become much taller during the summer and his round cheeks had disappeared. His dark hair reached his shoulders and his stormy grey eyes became more prominent due to the clear contrast between his hair and his eyes. His cheekbones were more protruding due to him losing weight that he really couldn't afford losing.

James Potter, aged twelve, still had his round cheeks. His boyish appearance was very much intact and the glimmer in his eyes made people think that he was probably never going to fully lose it. Before the summer he had been the same height as Sirius but now he was shorter. His raven-coloured hair was messy as ever, his glasses kept slipping down his nose and that nervous energy were still running through his body as before. It was clear in the way that he couldn't sit still.

Peter Pettigrew, also aged twelve, was a skinny boy with brown messy hair that had been badly cut. Some parts of his hair reached below his ears and some stopped above his ears. Just like every year, his mother had cut it for him just before school started. And just like every year the Marauders would fix it for him. Every year he thought that this was the time when they wouldn't be able to fix the mess his mother had created and every year they proved him wrong. His brown eyes appeared deep and made most people uncomfortable. Looking too long at Peter's eyes sometimes gave people the feeling that they were going to drown.

Remus Lupin, aged twelve like two of his three friends, had a boyish appearance in spite of the small scars on his throat and his arms. He had sandy-blond hair and pale blue eyes. There was a certain calmness about him that made him out to be the calm centre of the group. The person who dealt with the issues that arose. Whether this was true or not remained unanswered. It was just one of the mysteries that surrounded the four boys.

The Marauders were amused by the status they had been given. They didn't think much of it but they did enjoy listening to rumours about them. The rumours, however, never managed to fulfil their purpose. Because the boys didn't feel any more inclined to spread any type of personal information about themselves. Why would they? After all, they had each other. The greatest trait of their friendship was not executing pranks; the greatest trait of their friendship were loyalty, support and love. They spent more days with each other, casually relaxing in their dormitory than they did causing mayhem around the castle.

The first day of autumn were one of those days that was dedicated to spending time with each other. Since, after much argument, the boys came to the conclusion that you could never determine _which_ day was the first day of autumn they just took a random Saturday when the leaves outside had changed colour from green to pumpkin orange. They would stay in their dormitory the entire day and once it became night they would sneak to one of the towers and watch the stars. That day was always anticipated and the boys spent the entire week before it feeling absolutely ecstatic for reasons they couldn't explain.

"Pads, can you hand me a spoon?" the boys had put all their pillows and their covers on the floor where they laid next to each other. Peter and Remus had their legs directed further into the room while James and Sirius had their legs pointing in the direction of the door.

They had cups of hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows. Sirius, whom had brought the spoons, immediately handed one over to Peter who thanked him before digging into a piece of cake that he thought looked all kinds of tasty.

"Did you guys see Slughorn on the way here?" James asked and turned his head sideways so that he could look at Sirius.

The teenager frowned and nodded. "I really dislike that man."

"Me too." Remus answered while James nodded. All that could be heard from Peter was a humming.

Sirius turned his head so that he could see Peter truly enjoying the cake. It was a regular lemon cake. It was odd that Peter had never tasted it before but instead of saying that Sirius decided to keep his thoughts to himself. He shook his head as if trying to get them out of his head.

"He reminds me of my dad sometimes." Sirius commented instead and a shiver went down his spine.

James looked at him without any emotions on his face.

"That's just terrible," a few seconds went by when Sirius could practically see the wheels turning around inside his best friend's head as he thought. "And the worst part is that I can't say which one you just insulted. On the one hand… you dad" – James did some vague gestures which Sirius was sure only him and the other Marauders understood – "but on the other hand… Slughorn."

"Well," Remus said and caused both boys to turned their heads so that they saw him from an upside-down perspective. "One of them is cursed. That we can say for sure. The question is whom."

"My father would say that he's the one who's cursed. I mean, he was cursed with me." Sirius laughter didn't fool anyone.

"Yeah well," James began as he scooted closer to Sirius and put of his arms behind Sirius neck while leaning his head onto the older boy's shoulder. "Your father also happens to be a prick. If he's cursed, which he might be because… you know why, then you are more like a bloody blessing. You're the one good thing in his life and he doesn't even realise it."

Sirius ignored the way his eyes stung.

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Remus said as he sat up and reached for the cup of hot chocolate. "You're like the sun after it's been raining."

Excited sounds could be heard from Peter. "You're like McGonagall when we've pulled a prank on Slughorn without getting caught."

They had promised to never speak of that time ever again. McGonagall could not have it be known that she supported her students for pranking the head of the Slytherin house. The four boys never spoke of it around other people. But that didn't stop them from talking about the moment when they were alone. It was no wonder really that McGonagall had supported them. Slughorn had been absolutely intolerable.

"You're one fourth of the Marauders and without you we would be incomplete, okay?" James playfully pushed his shoulder.

Sirius would never be able to understand why they were friends with him. He adored them for it but there was always this part of him, this insecure part whom believed in what his parents had told him, that would not be able to come to terms with the fact that they cared about him like he cared about them.

But spending the first day of autumn by talking and spending time with them would surely, at some point, make him come to terms with the fact that they did love him and they would never let anyone say anything bad about him or treat him badly.

Peter sighed happily as he laid back down in the pile of pillows and covers. "I love the first day of autumn."

"Yeah," Sirius nodded and could feel the warmth spread through his body. "Me too."

 **The end**


	24. A Good Boy

**Title** : A Good Boy

 **Characters** : Sirius Black, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin.

 **Prompts** : Care of Magical Creatures - Task #1: Write about someone throwing objects for some reason. Minimum 500 words, maximum 3, 000.

 **Warning** : Peter is a bit AU. As per always. Because the possibility of what he could have become is really growing on me.

 **Word Count** : 790

* * *

Remus considered going back to the library when he heard the sounds of his friends through the door to their dormitory. After having spent the majority of time together for five years in a row the teenager felt confident that he could hear excitement, joy and… was that a hint of competitiveness on James' voice? He sighed deeply. Normal people would have tried to prepare themselves for what they would see but Remus knew that there was no reason to. He loved his friends to death, he knew them better than anyone in the entire world, he knew that they were intelligent; that meant that he held them in high regards and believed that they had the ability to show their creativity in literally any way.

Remus held his books under his arms, the skinny teenager hadn't been out of the dormitory, other than for class and food, in days because of the full moon and this was the first time when he felt energetic enough to take his book to another part of the castle and do some light reading.

"Come on Pads," James eager voice increased as he opened the door. "Put your back into it."

He closed the door the moment he walked in the room but didn't move anywhere. Remus was not impressed by what he saw. He had almost expected them to be in the midst of putting some clever and complicated scheme in action but what he saw was nothing other than James throwing pieces of candy into the air while a big, black dog jumped and made attempts to catch them. Padfoot, whom apparently though he was putting his back into it in spite of what James said, showed his teeth and growled loudly at the boy with the messy black hair.

James, with his hazel brown eyes, smiled when he tilted his head to the side. "Look at you trying to be scary. Come on Pads, we all know that you're just a big cuddly creature whom enjoys being scratched on the stomach a bit too much for your own good."

Remus watched with amusement as Padfoot played along and howled loudly. He was momentarily very thankful for the spell that made sure that no one outside of the dormitory could hear what was going on. Peter sat on his own bed, leaning his arms over the side of the bed and rested his head against his palms as he watched the two with a tired smile. He glanced over at Remus as soon as he walked in the room and gave him a lazy wave.

"I'll scratch your stomach as much as you want if you put your back into it," the big, black dog wagged his tail faster at that and James smile grew as he almost stood on his bed and held a piece candy in his hand. "Last one, okay, and I know that you can catch it in the air. Come on Pads, use those keen canine senses of yours."

It was impossible to not get dragged into the moment. Remus almost held his breath as he watched the piece of candy fly through the air and shouting erupted when Padfoot, standing on two paws, caught the candy mid-air. Remus watched with amusement as James raised both his arms and cheered while getting of the bed and bent down over Padfoot, whom was lying on his back, with one foot on either side of the dog's body and scratched his stomach. The black dog looked up at him with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and the tail wagging back and forth.

"You're such a good boy Padfoot, yes you are."

Remus wanted to say that this was the weirdest thing that he had ever seen. He wished that the combination of James talking to their best friend the way one would a child in combination of their antics and scratching him like he was a real dog was the most bizarre thing to have ever occurred in their dormitory. But that would have been a big fat lie.

"Is this what you guys have been doing the entire day?" he finally asked and earned Peter's attention.

The small boy nodded. "What are you thinking about Moony?" he asked after a moment of silence during which they listened to James shower Padfoot with compliments.

The fact that he was still wagging his tail and moving against the floor proved what they already knew; he did love being scratched on the stomach a little bit too much for his own good.

Remus shook his head, while his smile grew, and he kept watching his two best friends. "I'm just thinking about what a good boy Padfoot is."

 **The end**


	25. Fight, Flight & Freeze

**Title** : Fight, Flight & Freeze

 **Characters** : Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

 **Prompts** : Necrophobia – The fear of death.

 **AN** : Written for the _Phobias Challenge/ Competition_ held by _DolbyDigital_ at _Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges_. Minimum 900 words, maximum 3, 000.

Peter is slightly AU in this one as always. I know that not everyone has heard of freeze. It wasn't there to begin with but it was added later on. It's pretty much like playing dead.

 **Warning** : Mention of death, more specifically the fear of dying.

 **Word Count** : 965

* * *

Fight, flight and freeze. It is a term referring to the body's reactions to danger. It's the physical reactions, the beating of the heart and the rush of adrenaline, the quickened breathing and the blood rushing to your legs, arms and your heart; it's the psychological reactions, the way that the mind works to find the threat and then determine what you should do about it.

These reactions mimic those of animals. Every animal, every individual, acts in a certain way depending on their abilities. Some have size, strength, claws and fangs which allow them to fight back. Some have the speed to run away. While others realise that they are not strong or fast; hence, they do what they can to protect themselves. In the animal kingdom you often use one. It would have been good if that could be applied to humans. Sadly, using a coping mechanism often was not the same as using it all the time.

James Potter, at the age of sixteen, used mostly the fight response when he felt threatened. Peter had seen him stand face to face with some mean Slytherin more than once and knew what James looked like when that happened. His raven-coloured, constantly messy hair, made him look defiant and his hazel eyes would be duller from displeasure of listening to whomever it was trying to get under his skin. He was a muscular guy from all the hours of playing quidditch and knew that he could take most people at school if needed to.

Sirius Black, at the age of seventeen, while being argumentative disliked fighting. But he didn't flee in the traditional sense of the word either. Peter had never seen his best friend turn away from a fight to run from the scene. No, he would be looking at the person in front of him as if that person was beneath him. It was, almost always, pureblood fanatics picking fights with him so Peter understood why he would do that. His brown hair, most of the time, hung gracefully around his neck. His shirt was pulled halfway up and revealed his skinny arms. He wasn't as muscular as James; naturally, since he didn't spend hours upon hours playing quidditch. While James went straight forward; Sirius stood back and taunted whomever his mind had identified as a potential threat. He didn't need to actually fight anyone.

Remus Lupin fled. He would almost always be, or end up, a few steps behind Sirius and James with Peter standing next to him. Due to their close proximity Peter saw every facial expression on the sixteen-year olds face. His sandy-blond hair was not like James', always messy, or Sirius, always perfect. His green eyes went back and forth between concern for his friends and anger for being in that position. And the closer you got to the full moon, the more defensive the teenager began looking. But he rarely did anything other than allow the other two boys to handle the issue at hand. Peter remember asking him why and hearing Remus say that he liked feeling in control. Peter didn't feel any need to ask his friend to develop that answer further.

Then there was Peter. What separated him from the other three were that they went back and forth between the different coping mechanisms. If needed, they could all fight whatever threat they faced. Peter, on the other hand, couldn't fight anything.

The young boy with the brown hair cut in various different lengths either froze or fled. He was never strong enough to fight anyone, neither in his human form or animagus, and even though he wasn't fast enough to run away from someone in his human form that didn't stop Peter from trying if he needed to. He was much smaller than his friends and had the nervous habit of biting his nails when he was stressed. People telling him that his nails looked ugly or that it was a terrible habit to have didn't make him want to stop or even try to stop. The only ones who never said anything about it were his friends. James, Sirius and Remus never commented on his habit; possibly because they rarely saw it in action. Peter could count on one hand how many times he had been afraid with them around him. Not counting during the nights and he believed that it would be unfair to do so.

His fingers, or nails more exactly, always seemed to find their way to his mouth during the night when he was surrounded by his best friends and the biggest threat that Peter's mind could identify. The teenager didn't understand how his mind could find that particular threat but it did and for some reason Peter would often lay awake fearing death.

Consciously he would try to snap out of it and tell himself that there was no reason to be afraid. He shouldn't think about things that he couldn't control. But that rarely stopped his mind from worrying and wondering about what was going to happen; when was it going to happen? He would lay awake, listening to his friends as they laid unknowingly in their beds, and feel a paralysing fear about not waking up the next day or about the fact that he would one day close his eyes and lose consciousness for the last time. Sometimes he froze; he would just lay still and wait for it to be over. Sometimes he fled; he got up from bed and shakily left the room.

Fight, flight and freeze. Three ways of defending ourselves against danger. They were supposed to work against any danger identified but Peter realised that they didn't always work. No coping mechanism could defend him from the fear of dying.

 **The end**


	26. No, We Mean Literally!

**Title** : No, We Mean Literally!

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

 **Word Count** : 1, 175

 **AN** : Birthday Fic number three :D

This takes place in the second year at Hogwarts as Remus said that it took the boys three years to become animagi and they are said to have succeeded in their fifth year.

* * *

Remus knew that they had been planning something for weeks before they finally cracked and told him. Or maybe they had planned on telling him. Remus wasn't sure about that part but he wasn't dumb or oblivious. And his best friends, on top of that, weren't used to hiding things from him. They were doing a pretty rubbish job if he could say so himself. He knew that Sirius wouldn't agree with him because technically Remus didn't know what they were working on. On a more positive note, at least Remus knew how their future discussions would sound like and he liked to think that spoke on his advantage.

"Hey there Moony," James spoke as he entered the room. "How are you?"

He ran his fingers through his raven-coloured hair before jumping up on his bed which was on the opposite side of the room. He crossed his legs underneath his body and leaned forward with his head resting against his palms. He was at the age of twelve still very much a child. Even if he sometimes said things and did things which made Remus question that. Those who claimed that James Potter were only immature really didn't know him. He wished sometimes that people wouldn't judge James based on what they saw or that they would understand that what they saw were only one part of him.

Sirius sat next to James and directed his permanently charming smile at Remus. "Are you bored yet?"

His brown hair fell naturally around his shoulders and somehow never got in the way of his eyes or in his mouth. He was more graceful than James, no doubt because of his parents and their firm belief that manners was everything and even the blood traitor needed to know how to behave himself. With Sirius it was the other way around. Remus wished that he acted the age that he was in. Sometimes he did but most of the time he kept his guard up by acting just chilly enough for people not to get too close to him.

"I haven't had time to get bored," Remus sighed deeply and moved around until his sore body felt more comfortable against the mountain of pillows that it had turned into because of his friends offering a few of theirs. "I've been too busy sleeping. Turning into a wild and hairy animal is hard work you know."

They all laughed at the joke but it took just a few seconds too long for it too sound natural. Peter, whose brown hair had been shaved off for the first time in his life, sat on his own bed next to Remus with his legs dangling back and forth. But it was the fidgeting, the way he kept his hands moving, that told Remus how uncomfortable he was in the situation. Sirius and James probably thought that they were good at hiding whatever it was that they were hiding but Remus saw straight through their acts.

"What?"

They glanced at each other. Silent communication truly was the worst when you were being left out.

"Well," James began and ran his fingers through his hair as he frowned and for a moment glanced down at the floor as if he was asking it a particularly hard question rather than telling Remus what they had been hiding for him for the past few weeks. "It's funny that you mention the changing into a wild and hairy animal. Because we have been thinking about making it possible for us to do that?"

Remus looked at his friend as if he had grown two heads. "Turn into hairy, wild animals?"

All three nodded.

"You mean figuratively, right?" Remus saw the way James and Sirius looked at each other. "Right?"

"No," Sirius said hesitantly with wrinkles appearing on his forehead. "We mean literally. We literally want to turn ourselves into wild and hairy animals."

One seconds. Two seconds. Remus wanted to ask them if they were joking even if he already knew the answer. He could tell by the determination in James eyes which meant that he could save his breath and not try to convince them not to go through with it because it was too dangerous. James, not all the time but some of the time, laughed in the face of danger and merely said that it would just be all the more impressive once they managed it. Sirius appeared to be challenging him to say something about it. He probably had a long speech in the back of his mind in case Remus were to object and there was probably an internal battle going on right now as he couldn't make up his mind; did he want to say what he had come up with or did he want Remus to accept that they were going to do this for him? Peter, the boy with the fidgeting and the constant movement as a tell-tell sign had stopped moving. He was unsure about telling Remus but he wasn't unsure about this.

"Well technically, we don't know if we're going to be hairy animals also we probably won't be that wild," Peter said while scratching the back of his head. "We could end up being turtles. Personally, I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that I turn into anything but that."

He just about managed to duck for the pillow that had been thrown across the room from James bed. It was Sirius who had thrown it but both he and James looked guilty with those almost matching smiles.

"Why would you do that?" Their smiles vanished at the sound of Remus vulnerable voice. "What you're talking about – becoming animagi – is really dangerous."

Sirius scratched the back of his head. Peter muttered something along the lines of that's for sure. James was the only one who didn't look away from him.

"Yeah, but if we do it we'll be able to help you during transformations. Also, nothing worth doing is ever easy," he said and shrugged. "Besides, it's not like we're doing this for some complete strangers. We're doing this for you, Remus, because you're our best friend and if this means that we can help you then we don't care about how dangerous it is. Right guys?"

Sirius shook his head. "Of course not."

"Exactly what he said," Peter took a deep breath. "We're not just friends Remus. We're much more than that. And if this is what we need to do to help you then we'll do it."

Remus smiled when the first teardrop ran down his cheek. He could have claimed that he was exhausted and that was the reason that he was crying. But he didn't need to. Neither of his friends would look down on him for crying. "I don't know what to say."

Sirius shrugged. "You don't have to say anything."

"No," Peter nodded. "Just promise that you won't judge us in case we end up transforming into some odd animal."

Remus laughed. "Okay Peter, I can do that."

 **The end**


	27. Comic Relief

**Title** : Comic Relief

 **Characters** : James Potter and Sirius Black.

 **Prompts** : Dialogue - "You know, you can get a lot for a kidney on the black market" & 300 words.

 **AN** : Written for _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)_. Assignment #2, 2018 Careers Advice (Less-Than-Desirable-Careers) Task #1: Write about having to complete a mundane job without magic; The 365 Prompts Challenge; & The Insane House Challenge.

 **Word Count** : 300

* * *

Sirius Black had his brown hair pushed back into a ponytail while he viciously scrubbed the plates clean. His movements were fierce and almost violent but there was no anger in his grey eyes. James Potter stood next to him and would occasionally look away from the glass which had been cleaning for the past minutes. His raven-coloured hair was as always messy and his hazel eyes were filled with concern. James was aware of the fact that the glass was clean but he struggled to put it to the side. He could feel the tension in the air as they did a job, or a chore without using magic.

"There's a first time for everything." James eventually said with an uncertain laugh. Sirius tore his eyes away from the mundane task and grinned at him.

"This isn't my first time. I've done the dishes at home lots of times," there was no joy in his laughter. "Mum and dad would have probably sold my kidneys if I refused."

He laughed again but there was a strain in his voice that James easily picked up. They were only children, Sirius was thirteen years and James was twelve, and still they knew so much about each other. It was due to that connection that James had seen Sirius flinch when his mother became cross with them. Because he believed that their punishment would be worse than merely doing the dishes. James thought hard to come up with something to say.

"You know, you can get a lot for a kidney on the black market."

Sirius didn't think twice before splashing some water in James' direction. "You're an idiot, Potter."

This time James could tell that his smile was genuine. Sometimes it wasn't about solving the problems, it was about comic relief.

 **The end**


	28. Potions

**Title** : Potions

 **Characters** : Sirius Black, Penny Singh, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

 **Pairings** : Sirius x Penny

 **Word Count** : 2, 233

 **AN** : Since I adore this one-shot I wanted to publish it even if I already have. I don't have the ego to believe that you'd be disappointed when you realise that this is an old story but I'm sorry if by some chance you are. But I realised that I couldn't fit it into the long fic so I decided to publish it as a one-shot because, yeah, I like it.

* * *

Penny Singh, at the age of fourteen years, knew exactly what she was good at and what she was less good at. She was brilliant at Charms. Not so brilliant at Potions. She could probably become good at it. But she didn't want to because she didn't like it.

The Great Hall was bussing with life. There were students on all four tables eating breakfast and talking to each other before it was time for class. Some were still making attempts at waking up with different results. Penny's black hair was pushed back in a ponytail, as it always was before a class in Potions. She had learned the hard way that sometimes liquids would turn into bubbles, they would later burst and the liquid could end up in her hair. She sighed. It had only happened once and although her highlights had remained undamaged that didn't stop her from taking precautions after that.

Six months into their third year Penny's highlights were violet and blue. During the holidays they had been red and green so when school started again she was sick and tired of those colours and decided that it was time for a change. She wore her uniform, as required, but had made slight changes. Her sleeves were folded so that her forearms were uncovered, her tie hung loosely around her neck, her jacket wasn't buttoned and there was a pocket on her white shirt which told everyone that she had bought something else than what the school had asked her to. Sirius was the first person to notice. Slughorn was the second.

* * *

"Miss. Singh, are you aware that you are not dressed in accordance with the rules of this school?" Sirius watched the old man as he directed his full attention to Penny.

They had only known each other for two or three months but Sirius knew that Penny had no problems defending herself when needed. She would, as she already had many times and would in the future, prove him right.

"I'm aware." she responded as she sat up straighter in her chair.

Marlene and Emmeline sat on either side of her. The three were an interesting and yet logical combination. Marlene with her blond hair that reached her shoulders, her pale blue eyes and challenging smile had a powerful will and was more observant than most people. She was drawn to enigmas, people who for some reason had something to hide, and she tried to help them in any way she could. Emmeline with black, curly hair and those intense black eyes were determined and always followed her principles. She could argue for herself and her friends whenever the situation demanded her to. Penny with her long hair and dark eyes was rebellious, social, friendly, she was loud, she was quiet, she was intelligent and she was childish. She was an enigma. Just when you thought that you had her figured out another part of Penny appeared, one that no one had seen before.

"Well," Slughorn looked surprised by her response. Or maybe lack thereof. "What are you going to do now that I have pointed it out to you?"

Sirius saw the way Penny pursed her lips.

"I'm not going to change myself to fit your requirements when I'm not breaking any of your rules," she said. James coughed to cover up his laughter but Sirius could see that she heard him, as did everyone else. "Do you have a problem with that sir?"

Slughorn must have realised that the battle was lost. Because he didn't argue with her. But something had changed since then. Penny was not the type to argue for the sake of arguing but if she needed to protect herself, or if her friends needed protecting, she would do what she could. But before and during Potions it was like her fighting spirit left her body even if only for that period of time.

* * *

Sirius, also fourteen, liked to think that he had a pretty good idea at what he was good at too. When it came to school Transfiguration had always been his strong side. He was good at Potions too; he just happened to really hate it. Other than that Sirius liked to think that he could read people pretty well. When he sat by the breakfast table, with Penny on the opposite side, he saw how nervous she was. At the age of fourteen Sirius Black was tall and skinny. But in spite of being in the so called awkward stage of his teens no one could deny that he was cute, beautiful even. His hair always seemed to gracefully fall where it was supposed to, his grey eyes sparkled and he smiled as if he knew everything you didn't want him to know.

"So," Sirius said and efficiently caught Penny's attention. "Potions huh."

She groaned and scrunched her face together into a pained facial expression. "Don't even talk about it."

Sirius would have smiled if it hadn't been for the obvious flash of sadness that came across Penny's face. She wasn't bothered by the subject because she was afraid that she would get a bad grade. There was something else hiding underneath the surface and Sirius wanted to find out what that was. To help.

"Is something wrong?"

Penny looked at him and for a brief moment, maybe for only a few seconds, and Sirius thought he could see her smile faltering. But the moment was over so quickly that he almost believed that he had imagined it all. She shrugged and flicked her ponytail so that she could run her fingers through her hair and shook her head while smiling.

"No," she said and shook her head again. "I just really don't like Potions. It's not… I guess you could say that it's not my best subject."

Sirius nodded. He glanced at Peter who sat on the other side of the table two places to the left from Penny. Potions wasn't his subject either. Granted, not a lot of subjects were Peter's strong side. He had many gifts but academic subjects were not part of them. Both Sirius and James always thought that was the reason that Peter and Penny were told to work together. Slughorn didn't like being outsmarted or outwitted. They had experienced that many times; mostly because they had done something which resulted in them ending up on his bad side.

"You can be my partner." He said with a smile. Penny glanced at Peter. "We'll just swap. Peter will be James' partner and you'll be mine. Please say yes. Besides, you'll be seated further back in the classroom. Slughorn will have to really make an effort to give you a hard time."

There were still traces of hesitation on Penny's face. She nodded towards James who sat next to Sirius. To everyone else it looked like he wasn't listening. His eyes were glued to Marlene who sat next to Penny. They were talking about quidditch and how important it was that they finally beat Slytherin. But Sirius could see that the raven-haired boy listened very closely to what was going on between him and Penny. Ever since the girl had joined their class both James, Remus and Peter hade made hints, both subtle and not so subtle, that Sirius should ask her out. So far, he had ignored them. That didn't mean that the thought didn't strike him every now and again. Sirius put his hand on James' shoulder and quickly was on the receiving end of one of James' famous smiles. His hazel eyes sparkled in a way it only did after he had talked about something that truly mattered to him. In this case, quidditch.

"Can we swap partners for the Potions lesson?" Sirius didn't give James any time to answer before nodding towards Penny. "I'll take Penny and you'll take Peter."

One corner of James' mouth turned upwards into a smile. "Have you even asked Penny if she wants to partner up with you. Maybe she would prefer me?"

For a thirteen-year-old James Potter was an excellent flirt. People who didn't like that part of him believed that it came from a deep-rooted urge that he had to highlight what an amazing person he was. Those who knew him was aware that he did it because he liked making people laugh and in this case because he enjoyed irritating Sirius.

"Well," Penny looked between the two. Sirius could see the internal battle going on inside of her. Just as he was about to say something to save her, Penny leaned forward and smiled. "Obviously it would be an honour to have you as my partner James but I think Peter needs your help more than I do."

James laughed. Loudly and spontaneously. "Good answer my friend. Of course, we can change partner. You two can sit in the back. Maybe then Slughorn and Snape will leave you alone."

Sirius frowned. He knew that Slughorn had been giving Penny some trouble for not following the rules to a tee but he didn't know that Snape were too. The girl in question smiled but there was some hesitation behind it. He wanted to ask her what that was about since James had turned his attention elsewhere but decided against it.

Instead he looked at Penny with a confident smile. "See, I told you he was going to be fine with it."

She laughed. Sirius hadn't told her that he liked the sound of her laughter but the thought entered his mind every time he heard it. Someday he was going to tell her how beautiful it was. "Thanks Sirius."

There were many reasons behind Sirius intense hatred for Potions. He hated it because his family believed it to be an excellent skill and he hated it because Snape loved it. Almost as much as he loved the dark arts, which just so happened also was one of the subjects Sirius hated the most. Not as much as Potions granted but there were plenty of hatred there too. He also truly and intensely hated the classroom where Potions was held. It was dark, there was a certain moisture in the room and Sirius was sure that old liquids had gotten stuck in the walls. He always worried about Remus whom complained about headaches after a lesson on Potions. He explained that his heightened senses made him smell not only the liquids that were currently being brewed but the remains of liquid which had been left behind from earlier classes. They were powerful and never failed to make him feel slightly nauseous. He always looked a little bit green when he left class.

Penny looked green when she walked inside. Lily and Marlene went further up the classroom, their bench was just in front of James and Peter, while Penny glanced to her side and walked towards Sirius.

"Are you ready?" Sirius asked. Penny took a deep breath, Sirius for a moment thought that she looked like she was going to throw up, and nodded. "Good, lets kick Potions ass."

Slughorn began talking the moment the last student had entered the room. The person who had almost been late were being scrutinised but no comment was made. Slughorn was gifted when it came to silently judging people. Then class began for real when the instructions appeared on the board at the front of the classroom. They slowly and methodologically did what they were supposed to do. Sirius noticed out of the corner of his eye that Penny's movements became more sluggish the longer they worked and eventually, when she was going to get something, she had to stop a few times no matter how short or long the distance was.

"You're good at this," Sirius said as he was cutting up some kind of root. He didn't really put much attention to what kind. Maybe he would have if it would have been useful for future pranks but this was just some boring old root. He saw the look of uncertainty on Penny's face. "I'm serious. You're really good at Potions."

Penny laughed and Sirius gave her a questioning look. "Sorry, you said that you were serious. I was this" – she showed a short distance between her fingers – "close to telling you that I'm Penny."

Sirius laughed. "You're hilarious." She whispered something along the lines of don't I know it. "But in all honesty, you are really good at Potions. Why are you so unsure about the subject?"

There it was again. The hesitation. It was the kind of hesitation that Sirius had seen before which made him unsure of what he was supposed to do now. He wanted to ask her exactly what was going through that brilliant mind but at the same time there was something holding him back. Maybe it was the way she bit her lower lip, or the way she subconsciously reached for the end of her ponytail which she could easily reach and began fiddling with her hair. You could learn a lot from people's nervous habits. If one only looked close enough they told you more than words ever could. That was the case here. For a moment, it felt as if the world consisted of only them. All other students were gone while Sirius was trying to decide what to say or what to do. Penny had only been in his life for a few months but she had made an impression and he wanted to help. Just like when he met James there was something drawing him towards Penny and he wanted her in his life.

"Maybe the strong smell is getting to her," a voice Sirius sadly recognised very well said. He looked up from their table and glanced ahead at the boy with greasy black hair, a big nose and pointy eyes which seemed to have the ability to see the thoughts you were desperately trying to hide. "Is that it, _Penny_?"

Sirius hated the way he said her name. "Turn that ugly face around Snape. And don't talk to her like that."

"Sore subject. Can't she fight her own battles?"

Penny rolled her eyes. Her lips had gone thin and there was an anger there that you rarely saw. Sirius knew that she meant business whenever that look appeared on her otherwise kind face. Because, as he now knew, she wasn't the kind of person to go looking for fights. But if someone wanted to fight her then she wasn't going to lay down on her back and let them win.

"She can and she doesn't appreciate you talking about her as if she's not here," Penny said with venom practically seeping from her voice. Sirius almost wanted to check for burns on Snape. She had that power. Most people needed to say something rude but not Penny. Her voice alone was powerful enough. "As for the strong smell. If you're talking about the stench coming from you then yes, the smell is getting to me."

Sirius nodded. "You heard her. Go back to your chemistry set. _Snivellus_."

The young boy muttered something under his breath but Sirius didn't bother commenting on it. Penny didn't either. But there was something about the way her eyes widened which made Sirius wonder if she had heard Snape more clearly than he had. He wondered if he was imagining things again but pushed the thought aside the moment Penny looked up at him.

"Thanks for standing up for me," she said and smiled. "I can stand up for myself but sometimes it's nice to not have to take every battle."

"I know you can," Sirius commented with a shrug. "You're a strong person. But you're also my friend and I protect my friends even if I'm sure that they can do it themselves. Like James for example, he can take whatever shit Snape throws at him but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to defend him."

"Are we friends?"

Sirius had been thinking about that for a very long time. Very early on he felt a desire to be Penny's friend. He liked her. He liked the way she stood up for herself, the way she didn't let anyone or anything change her and the warmth that came with her. Penny had the ability to listen to any subject you wanted to talk about and be interested. Meaning that people loved talking to her. But underneath this social exterior there was something else. Sirius wanted to know what that was. He wanted to be her friend. For now.

"Obviously," he said and winked at her. "Now let's get this potion finished so that we can do something fun instead."

"Like what?"

Sirius leaned closer to her ear. "Like prank someone."

"Oh," Penny rolled her eyes and laughed but never the less increased the speed in her movement as much as she could. "Is this why you and James are always done so much earlier than everyone else?"

"Pretty much. The more we dislike something the quicker we do it and then we'll be able to do something more fun," Sirius took a break from stirring the potion which had taken a violently red colour. The right colour. "And let me tell you, we really hate Potions."

 **The end**


	29. Twice Rejected

**Title** : Twice Rejected

 **Characters** : James Potter, Sirius Black and Lily Evans.

 **Prompts** : Write about rejection. Minimum 300 words, maximum 3, 500.

 **AN** : Written for _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)_. Assignment #9, 2018 Mythology- The Twelve Labours of Hercules, Task #7 Cretan Bull: Write about rejection.

 **Word Count** : 905

* * *

"I'm going to do it."

James Potter ran his fingers through his raven-black hair. Sirius knew before he looked up from his book about Transfiguration that his best friend was looking at a certain redhead further down the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. His brown hair was pushed back into a bun to keep the hair out of his grey eyes and he leaned his cheek against his hand and gave James a tired smile.

"What are you going to do Prongs?"

The target of his attention was fifteen years old and fitter than most teenagers. He was definitely fitter than Sirius whom could be described as slim. James' smile grew as he rubbed the palm of his hands together and nodded sideways towards Lily Evans. Her red hair was pushed back into a ponytail, occasionally she would smile at something her friends said and her green eyes shimmered in different ways depending on how the light would hit them when she leaned back and laughed loudly. A parchment laid forgotten in front of her with scribbles which Sirius couldn't read from where he sat further down.

"I'm going to ask her on a date."

Sirius nodded. James had been on plenty of dates before but he had never asked Lily Evans out on one. Not for lack of interest from his part. No, James thought that the young girl was beautiful, intelligent and it was clear to most people that he wouldn't mind taking her out on a date. Maybe that knowledge was just the spark that had been needed to ignite the rumour, which had turned into a truth, that James had asked her at least once every year since he was eleven. Sirius knew that was definitely not the case. But that didn't stop the rest of the school from believing that James was a lovestruck puppy whose entire existence consisted of coming up with new ways to get Lily Evans to go out with him.

"Good luck with that, mate." Sirius said and nodded as James stood up. Before turning around James winked at him and then he started walking towards the end of the table.

Rumours rarely worked in someone's favour. That had certainly been the case with James Potter even if most people would claim otherwise. Only the closest friends of the Gryffindor quidditch-player would know that he was nothing like the rumours portrayed him. It was true that he occasionally liked to act and it was also true that he was good at it. But not everything was game and James Potter wasn't as relentlessly stubborn as most people thought that he was. Not really. Sirius could tell that he wasn't the only one watching James as he sauntered up to Lily. Nor was he the only one who looked long enough to see her shake her head. Then he saw his best friend turn around and wander back to his previous seat.

"She wasn't up for it."

Sirius shrugged. "Sorry mate, are you going to ask her some other time?"

"Nah," James looked down the table in the opposite direction of where Lily sat. "She said that she wouldn't date me even if we were the last two people alive. Personally, I would have settled with a no."

"Can't say that I disagree, Prongs."

James nodded as he ran his fingers through his hair once more and looked at Sirius with a smirk on his face which made him look as if he was truly up to no good. That however could mean a lot of things. Sirius knew that better than anyone. So, he closed his book with his fingers resting on the page that he had read last.

"Say, Pads, do you want to go on a date with me?"

Sirius shook his head with laugh. "I'm going out with Penny."

"She asked you out?"

"She asked me out!"

James nodded and reached over the table to clap his friend on the shoulder. "Good on you, mate."

Then his eyes caught something further down the corridor and when Sirius turned around to look in that direction he saw Peter and Remus come walking. When they were only a few meters away from their two friends James stood on the bench and held his arms stretched out towards them. Remus had sandy blond hair and green eyes. His appearance wasn't dramatic in any way and the kind boy often got lost or managed to hide behind his more dramatic and louder friends. Unlike Peter Pettigrew, however, he didn't try. Peter's hair colour was hard to define but bordered between dark blond and a light brown. His eyes were dark brown and he was a skinny boy whom could easily melt in with his surroundings.

"Remus Lupin, will you go on a date with me? I've already been rejected twice today so please, don't break my heart."

The blond boy laughed as Peter nudged him. "Sure Prongs!"

Both boys came to sit next to their friends as James lowered himself into his seat. Remus sat down next to Sirius whom winked at him and Peter sat down next to James. The latter turned to his raven-haired friend. "What would you have done if he said no?"

"Accepted it because no means no," James responded with a shrug. Soon a smirk appeared on his face. "And then I would have asked if you were up for it!"

 **The end**


End file.
